Haunting Me
by RainbowSerenity
Summary: /Slight AU, DxS/ Sam's got a strange ability...she's the only one that can see and hear ghosts. So what will happen when she moves to Amity Park, home of the world's best ghost hunters? And what's with the Ghost Boy in spandex who insists on haunting her?
1. Chapter One

_Hey there. After an extremely long absence from writing fanfiction, it is I, RainbowSerenity, here with a brand new Danny Phantom fic! WOO!  
I would first like to say that the inspiration for this came from Meg Cabot's excellent book series, The Mediator. If you like ghost stories with a twist, you should definitely check them out. If you're already familiar with those books, you're going to see a lot of influence from them here, but don't worry—it's not going to be exactly the same. _

Like I stated in the summary, this is a slight AU fic, but simply because of how I've set stuff up. You'll see as the chapters go on, but I hope you guys like it!

Okay, I think that's all for now…welcome to...

**Haunting Me**

One look at me, and you'd probably think that I have everything a teenage girl could ever want.

You couldn't be more wrong.

I mean, okay, sure, the incredible wealth is nice, since it comes with a huge room decorated to my taste (as much as my parents hate it) and a killer Goth wardrobe. And yes, I will admit that I like the home theater with every DVD imaginable, although my best friend Tucker probably beats me in how many hours I've spent down there.

But if you looked a little harder, you'd see my totally peppy parents that try to wring me away for this "Goth phase", as they so like to put it, as often as they can. Or the fact that because every single person in Dimmsdale knows that I'm loaded, I was never expected to do anything by myself—money means being able to sit around and count your dollars, I guess. Or maybe that Tucker Foley is the only person on this planet that I can totally trust since I never know if people like me for me or my wads of cash.

Tucker, of course, wished I would give in to my family's wealth a little—"you should show off a little of that 'bling-bling'" was how he once put it—but he's a good guy. I met him when we were in second grade and he was dared to throw up in my lunch box. When I found out that he did it, I punched him in the face and we both apologized as we sat there in front of Principal Waxaplax. From then on, weird things have always followed us.

Or I guess I should say, weird things have always followed _me..._

Tucker, being the good guy that he is, definitely won't admit that I'm crazy, but sometimes I think that he's, well, thinking it. He knows that if he ever voiced that thought, though, he would have to wear more than those huge glasses on his face to hide the massive bruises he would be getting. It's pretty obvious on why people think I'm crazy—I always appear to be talking to myself, and I've gotten myself (and Tucker, on many occasions) into situations that seemed unexplainable to anyone but myself. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone in town thinks that my wackiness is only second to this one elementary school teacher, Mr. Crocker. The crackpot claims he believes in fairy godparents, or some other such nonsense.

Yeah, sure, I doubt fairies are real, but what I talk to is _very _real.

I, Samantha Manson, can see and talk to ghosts.

Yes, ghosts. Spirits of the dead that walk around on the human plane and try to figure out what's keeping them from that great big cloud in the sky, or the fiery underworld—whatever. Contrary to popular belief, very few people can actually see them—and I mean _very _few. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one I know of that has this special little "gift".

Lucky me.

Oh don't get me wrong—at times I like it, because I'm all for being unique. I don't give a care as to what other people think of me, and I'm never one to follow trends and whatnot. That's another reason I'm not into the whole 'moneybags' thing as my parents are; money doesn't make you unique. And Tucker _wonders _why I don't get along with my parents!

But I guess if you took away all the madness in my life, it's pretty good. Everything around me is familiar—I've basically known every person in Dimmsdale since pre-K, and we're all about to go into high school together. I know I can count on Tucker for anything, and I've essentially learned to deal with any ghost around here that comes my way. It's not a bad way to live, when I think about it.

That is, until my parents burst into my room one day while I was doing some summer reading—okay, reading Gothic poetry from my favorite bookstore, but they didn't need to know that—and approached me with huge grins on their faces.

"Sammykins, guess what!" Mom squealed. She clasped her frilly gloved hands together in delight. "We're _moving_!"

Like I said, you couldn't be more wrong.

--

"So you're _moving?_" Tucker said in disbelief the next day. I had invited him over to watch some movies and basically goof off, telling him I had news. I figured he'd be his old self and log my new address into his PDA or something, but he didn't seem to be taking it so well.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "And can you believe it? We're going to some _nowhere_ place called Amity Park. It's clear across the state." I cross my arms, clearly angry at the whole situation.

"But it's not fair!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't _I _be the one saying that?"

Tucker sighed. "Well...it's just...how could your parents just pluck you from Dimmsdale right before we're supposed to go into high school? Now I'll just be the 'lonely nerd' instead of the 'rich girl's best friend'."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, ha freaking ha. You think I'm _happy _about this? I mean, my life's pretty much set up here, and now my parents are making me start all over. And unless my new school is full of freaks, somehow I doubt that I'll fit in. I won't have _anyone_, Tucker. At least you'll still know everyone."

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged. "But c'mon, who _else _is going to keep Frances off my back? You're really the only one who is able to stand up to him."

"As dumb as he is," I agreed.

"Maybe you could get one of your ghostly minions to protect me. I mean, it's not like—"

I let out a very aggravated sigh. "Ugh, Tucker, would you _stop _it! I don't use ghosts for my 'minions', as you like to call them! As a matter of fact, I like to get them _out _of my way as much as humanly possible!"

"Ghostly possible."

"What_ever_. All I do is help them get to the 'other side', or whatever you want to call it, and that's _it. _I'd really rather _not _have any other kind of interaction with them if I can help it!"

Tucker let out a long, low sigh. "I hope there aren't many ghosts in Amity Park. That would pretty much turn your 'new girl' reputation into 'ghost-hunting freak', you know?"

Unfortunately, for once in his life, Tucker was absolutely right.

--

_Okay, I know that was a bit short, but trust me, the chapters will get longer as time goes on...but tell me! Like it? Not like it? Please be totally awesome and **review!**_


	2. Chapter Two

_So wow! I was really surprised that I so many positive reviews for this fic! You guys are awesomely awesome...like pie! Heh heh. I'm actually surprised I got this out as soon as I did; my dad bought me Kingdom Hearts 2 and it's basically been taking over my life. –hides sheepishly- _

_But anyway, this chapter is a little longer, but not by much...it'll improve though. I'll hush up now and let you read..._

**Chapter Two**

I didn't really see much of Tuck—or anyone, for that matter—for the next two weeks, as I had to 'get my butt packing'. It didn't really seem fair that Mom and Dad hired people to pack for them, while I was stuck doing my own room.

Oh, well. After all, there _are _things I would really rather _not _let people see...like the journal I keep about the ghosts I meet, for example. Or the glowing ring a ghost had once given me who had been extremely wealthy in his previous life. What the heck would I tell my parents? 'Oh no Mom, that ring isn't just shiny; it's glowing 'cause it's spectral! I got it from a ghost! Wait? You're hauling me off to a mental institution?'

Welcome to my life.

About a week before Moving Day, I got a call from Tucker while I was dumping stuff from my closet into random boxes, and of course my cell phone had to be buried in said random box.

"Ugh! I don't see—ow!—how Tuck can like technology so much!" I yelled to my phone, whacking myself in the face with a combat boot in the process. I finally found the evil little device and flipped it open, throwing the boot that had attacked me against the wall.

"What!" I barked into the phone, not even knowing who I was yelling at.

"Well geez Sam, if that's how you're gonna greet everyone at your new school, forget about them calling you 'ghost hunting freak'," Tucker laughed.

I grimaced and leaned against the wall, pushing my bangs up from my forehead. "Sorry, Tucker. I was just trying to empty out my closet and inanimate objects decided they wanted to declare war on me."

"Maybe one of your ghostly pals decided they were out to get you."

I growled, literally _growled _into the phone. "Knock it off! And keep it down, will you? The last thing I need is for someone confirming that I'm totally crazy."

"Well _I _don't think you're crazy, even though I've never really _seen _any of these so-called ghosts, but isn't it nice to know that someone out there thinks you're sane?"

I let out a huge sigh. "Tucker, there's...there's more to it than that. I have to help them get out of the human plane by any means necessary. I don't exactly have a ton of 'ghostly pals', as you like to put it, sitting around doing my homework for me or anything."

"It's summer."

"That's beside the point. Now did you have something in particular to tell me, or did you call just to aggravate me about the ghosts I wish I couldn't see?"

"Actually..." Now Tucker sounded uncomfortable, which wasn't like him at all. Tuck never got uneasy about anything—he took everything in stride, which was probably one of the reasons we were such good friends.

"What?" I prompted.

"Well...I've been looking up some stuff on Amity Park..."

"Really? What a waste of time. What'd you find out?"

He let out a slight chuckle. "Well, I actually found out some pretty interesting stuff. There's a bunch of people in town that claim they've been victims of ghosts attacking them—and on top of it all, Amity Park is apparently home to two of the world's best-known ghost hunters."

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing, but only because Tucker sounded _so _serious. "Oh, really? And who are these people?"

"Jack and Maddie Fenton. I have no clue if they actually _do _see ghosts or what, but they're the best known for rounding up any spooks. They've been in the business since their college days, apparently."

"Weird," I said. "I don't know Tucker, doesn't that just seem...really unlikely? I mean, _I _know there are ghosts around here, but none of them have actually attacked other people—just me."

"Oh _sure_." Tucker sounded unconvinced. "Like that one time ol' what's-his-name grabbed me by the leg, hurled me upside down, and threatened to break my neck unless you stopped the exorcism that you were performing?"

"His name was Damon," I supplied. "And yeah, I guess you're right, but the weird thing about ghosts is that they usually either stick around where they died, or they instinctively find me. I mean, some of the ghosts I've run into have been dead a really long time. I guess it's nice to have someone hear what you're saying for once."

"So you think that maybe there's someone in Amity Park with your little ability? I mean, I've heard of places being haunted, but Sam, the reports that come from this place are ridiculous. It's gotta be the only explanation."

"I guess..." I wasn't convinced. I mean, it _would _be nice to finally meet someone else with this quirky little trait of being able to speak to the dead, but it would also be...I don't know, really unsettling to know that someone in this very state had had the exact same "talent" as me. Something was telling me that Amity Park was a whole other story than what Tucker had found out about the place.

"So anyway..." I said, interrupting my own thoughts. "You're coming over for the next few days, right?"

"Every day 'til moving day," he replied, and I could practically hear him grin. "I gotta make use of that home theater while I still can!"

I smiled. "You would. I just hope I can take care of all the ghosts around here before I move. I haven't actually had to deal with one for a few weeks now, and when they just stop showing up like that, it always makes me nervous."

"They're all waiting for you in Amity Park," Tucker joked, bursting out into laughter.

He was cursing me. I just _knew_ it.

--

On moving day, I expected just Tucker, and maybe some family friends to say their goodbyes to us as we quickly packed up and left town without commotion.

What I got, of course, was most of Dimmsdale on our lawn as I stumbled onto the lawn at nine in the morning, clad in fuzzy purple slippers and my black nightgown.

After I got into proper clothes (and silently vowed to murder Tucker), I discovered it was all a ruse set up by my parents and Tucker—it was a going-away party that I was supposed to enjoy while my parents helped pack up the extra boxes and stuff; sort of an apology for making me pack up my own room and plucking me from the town I'd been living in my whole life.

Oh yeah, thanks Mom and Dad. Now thanks to you, practically all of Dimmsdale knows what I sleep in.

Although about an hour into the "party"—which consisted of people breaking off into cliques and talking to the same people they did every day—I discovered someone who more than likely wasn't invited. In fact, I was the only one who knew she was at this little shin-ding.

She had to have been dead a long time, because her face was an eerie green color. She wore a long, full blue dress and had her long hair tied neatly back in a braid. A sad expression was set on her face, and I didn't think it was just because people were literally walking through her.

I leaned over towards Tucker, who had been taking random digital pics, trying to find some sort of way to blackmail a friend of his, Timmy (they've both had their eye on some popular bimbo for ages and are constantly fighting for her attention), and hissed, "There's a ghost here. I'm gonna try and figure out what she wants, okay? Cover for me."

"Yeah, no problem," he answered, clearly distracted. "If she's a hottie, give her my number."

Rolling my eyes, I slowly made my way towards the girl, trying as hard as I could to stay out of people's view as much as possible. Before I could get close enough, though, she looked straight at me, that gloomy look still in her eyes.

"He's the one," she murmured, not moving except to look at me. "But he wasn't supposed to be like this. Give him his chance."

I blinked. "Umm...I'm sorry...I don't know what you're talking about. Would you mind making sense?"

The ghost shook her head slowly, as if she were too depressed to do anything more. "He can't stop them. They know it wasn't supposed to be this way."

"Would you mind telling me who 'they' are?"

"He knows. He can feel it in his heart." She pressed a closed fist to her chest. "Remember that he's the one. You've both been searching—but know that it wasn't supposed to be like that."

"What the heck—"

Before I could finish my sentence, there was a gust of wind and the ghost disappeared.

--

_GASP, I hope the suspense is killing you...well, not really, because if it did, you wouldn't be able to **review! **Muhahaha. Much love and thanks to the reviewers of the first chapter: KelcitaoOo, SummersSixEcho, silvermoonphantom, BlueMyst19, divinedragon7, FireMoonGoddess, Lacey52, dArkliTe-sPirit, Galateagirl, Oystiee, the wicked end, Denise, Kagome M.K, danny+sam 4E, not important, and Terrasina Dragonwagon. You guys are awesome and I hope you review again!_


	3. Chapter Three

_Hey everyone! First of all, sorry about taking kinda long to get this chapter out...life's been getting in the way! Curse you life! -shakes fist- I also apologize for how short this chapter is. -hides from people throwing tomatoes- Heh heh. Honestly, I've messed with it so much, seeing if I should add anything or whatever, but I'm happy with how this came out, despite the length. Ah, whatever. Heeeere is..._

**Chapter Three**

During the drive to Amity Park, everything _but _my last few minutes in Dimmsdale (in which Frances had apologized for bullying me, but now Tucker was going to get twice the beating) was running through my head. After everyone had left, I told Tucker about my latest ghostly encounter, and he just doubled over laughing. I glared at him, but he had a point: most ghosts that I ran into had the tendency to want to break my bones, just because I was alive and they weren't. Very rarely did one ever just sit there and talk, and _never_ had one disappeared of their own will.

I was thinking about what she was saying—"He's the one". What did that mean? Who was the one what? Was she actually making some kind of prediction, or was she leading me into a death trap? I couldn't figure it out.

Of course, given my previous experience with ghosts, it was more that likely that she was leading me into uncertain doom. I mean, last time I had followed a ghost's advice, I found myself tied to a chair of said ghost's crazy stepparent, having ghost rays shot at me. Not very nice.

I yawned, grabbing hold of my seat as Dad made an extremely sharp turn. My parents, being themselves, rarely ever drove anywhere—we had chauffeurs--but Dad had wanted to drive across the state 'like a real live tourist!' was how he so gleefully put it. Nagging and begging hadn't worked, so I had resorted to pleading, which had gotten my CD player taken away for the trip. Now I was forced to listen to AM radio babble while my parents went on and on about how great the 'sites' were.

Oh yes, Mom and Dad. A bunch of trees, some cows, and the occasional traffic jam. I'm _so _thrilled.

I leaned against the seat, deciding to take a little nap. Dad had told me that we should be there that night—exactly one day before I was supposed to start my new school. Even _more_ thrilling.

I closed my eyes, letting the ghost's words drift over me. She was off her rocker...Amity Park was going to be _fine..._it wasn't going to be the ghost-infested town that Tucker made it out to be. The so-called 'ghost hunters' were probably just some crazy people, and any normal ghost would be scared away by them, so I wouldn't have to deal with so many spectral beings.

Besides, I usually had no problems with the ghosts I encountered. Okay, there were a couple of—well, _evil _ones that wanted to rip out every bone in my body, but most of the time, they were keen on letting me help them. And it's not like there are ghosts _everywhere_, right?

I knew I was just trying to kid myself, but I was growing more and more nervous about this place—especially after the report Tucker had given me, and _especially _after what that weird woman ghost had said. It was unnatural for a Goth like myself to be optimistic, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

'_Amity Park is a ghost-free town...' _I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep.

--

"GHOST!"

That was the first word I heard when I stumbled out of the car in front of our new home, disheveled and half-asleep. At the sound of the g-word, my eyes snapped open and I saw two people clad in bright spandex jumpsuits running down the sidewalk holding silvery-looking devices. One looked strangely like a vacuum cleaner, and the other was clearly a baseball bat.

"Mom! Dad! Wait! That's not a ghost! It's out an out of shape teacher in a mask!" Another girl, with long red hair and a teal headband was running after them, clearly trying to get them to stop their madness. I looked down the road and saw _something _running, but it was clear the girl was right: what those people were chasing was no ghost, simply because everybody got out of his way.

I couldn't help but feel a little relieved—if there were any _real _ghosts around here, maybe it wouldn't look so odd when I was talking to nothing. Maybe Tucker was right and this whole town was on ghost-alert. Maybe, for once in my life, my "talent" wouldn't make me stand out in the bad ways that I didn't want to.

I glanced over at my own parents, whose mouths were hanging open in shock. I could tell they were now totally regretting moving here.

"Well," I coughed. "Maybe this place will be more exciting than Dimmsdale. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of unpacking to do considering I start school tomorrow."

"Oh...sure honey," Mom answered, blinking. She broke into a grin. "Oh Sammykins, did you see the house? Isn't it _lovely?_"

I spun around and looked up...and up. The 'house', as Mom like to put it, was _huge. _It was the width of about three normal houses on the block, and a story taller. It was impossible to be driving down the road and _not _notice it.

So much for fitting in.

--

The moment the majority of my stuff was unpacked, I pull out my cell phone and decided to give Tucker a quick call, just to let him know I had survived a drive with my parents—and to tell him about my strange encounter that happened on the sidewalk.

The phone had barely rung once when someone answered. "Hey Sam."

"Tucker?"

"No, this is the funny farm. To who are you speaking?"

"That's _whom, _techno-geek. I'm just letting you know that I made it over here alive."

"And that's supposed to be news?" He let out a laugh. "C'mon Sam, I know you better than that. You wouldn't call me just to report that you're alive."

I sighed. "Well...actually, I'm beginning to wonder if you were right about this town."

He let out a very fake, dramatic gasp. "The almighty _Sam Manson _is actually admitting that _I'm _right for once! WOO!"

"Keep your victory dance to yourself, Foley," I smirked. "There's nothing ghost-related happening...yet."

"Yet?"

"Well, considering the very first word I heard when we came into town was 'GHOST!', I'm going to assume that some kind of spook is going to find me eventually."

I could practically hear Tucker raise an eyebrow. "Sam, I said the place was rumored to be _haunted, _not full of crazy people."

"These people weren't chasing a ghost. They were running after some old guy in a mask, attempting to whack him over the head with a baseball bat."

He paused. "Oh...wow. That's, like, _beyond _wonky."

"Pretty much," I agreed, although I really had no clue what 'wonky' was supposed to mean. "Listen Tuck, I start school here tomorrow so I gotta get to sleep. Wish me luck that the place isn't totally overrun by the spirits of dead lunch ladies or something."

"Knowing you, it probably will be," he laughed.

Oh yes...considering how _lucky _I am.

--

_Heh heh, poor Sam. Hopefully her luck's about to change...since she does proclaim she's so 'lucky' and all. :P  
It's freaking awesome I'm getting so much praise for this story:D -hands everyone a cookie- Thanks to the awesome people who reviewed last chapter: divinedragon7, phantasticphantom, Galateagirl, Lacey52, Psycho but fun, cutereviewgirl, Kagome M.K, shadowspinner1, WWMTgirl, dArkliTes-sPirit, Phantom2B, katiesparks, Nobody-Important91, rikagirls, BlueMyst19, pwykersotz, Terrasina Dragonwagon, Kewl, and animeobsessed3191. You guys totally rule and I hope you'll **review **again!_


	4. Chapter Four

_Hey hey...-blinks rapidly- WOOT! Finally, an update. And here I thought this would just be a quick little story...eh heh heh..._

_Anyway, finally I have a decent-sized chapter! WOOT! Oh I'm so proud of myself XD Ah well, enough of that. Onto..._

**Chapter Four**

I woke up fairly early the next morning to give myself a chance to somewhat memorize the school's layout so I wouldn't look like some lame new kid. I threw on my usual attire: black tank top, black and green plaid skirt, purple tights, and my trusty combat boots. I quickly stuck my hair in a high ponytail before clumping down the stairs for breakfast.

Mom was busy rummaging through the boxes in the kitchen, trying to find the toaster. "Oh Sammykins, I was going to make you a special breakfast for your first day, but that toaster seems to be missing...that's the last time I buy anything from Denmark!"

"Don't worry Mom," I reassured her. "I'll just have some cereal or something...that is, if the fridge is hooked up and running..."

"Of course it is, sweetie! I had your dad install it last night."

At these words, I inwardly groaned. My dad is anything but a handyman. He once tried to hook up a new DVD player into the living room and ended up causing a small explosion. He wouldn't know cored A from cord B if his life depended on it.

"On second thought, I'll just be going. Maybe there's a store on the way where I can pick something up," I said, grabbing my purple spider bag.

Mom frowned. "Well...alright. Have a good first day, sweetie."

I let out a huge sigh. "Yeah. Sure. Later, Mom." I couldn't decide which was worse: hanging around home all day, or going to a brand new school. I just hoped that there would be someone I could talk to, although no one would ever be able to replace Tucker.

Casper High was just a few blocks from my house, so I made it there without any trouble. Of course there was no place for me to pick up a granola bar or something, but luckily I had plenty of lunch money in my bag. Hopefully the school had a good recyclo-vegetarian menu.

When I reached the campus, it was surprisingly littered with a whole bunch of students, considering it was pretty early on the first day. I made my way through a group, a small knot growing in my stomach as I realized that most of them were of the letter-jacket and pom-pom variety.

I took a deep breath and kept walking. I mean, they couldn't all be bad—you can't judge a book by its cover, right?

Just then, I stumbled over a step I didn't see and bumped into a tall Latino girl wearing a pink baby tee and skintight blue jeans. She spun around, looking like venom was about to shoot from her eyes.

"Uh, sorry," I apologized. "Lost my footing. No harm done though, right?"

"You better watch where you're going—" She eyed me up and down. "—FREAK." With that, she turned back to her posse, laughing unnaturally loud about something, which I could only assume was me.

I made my way towards the front of the school, my hands growing into fists. Although I never had any reason to before, finding a ghost to do some evil things for me sounded really appealing right now...

'Whoa there Sam," I said to myself, unclenching my fists. "Take it easy. Maybe it's just first-day nerves. Maybe she's really a nice person inside. Maybe I need to get a reality check. Maybe...I need to stop talking to myself."

When I looked around, I realized people had been staring at me really funny. Great—five minutes into the first day and I was already seen talking to myself—and there wasn't even a ghost around!

Grumbling to myself, I walked up to a list that apparently had every student's name on it, and where they were to report for homeroom. Before I could look up my name, I noticed a huge sign plastered above the list: **ALL NEW INCOMING STUDENTS ARE TO REPORT TO GUIDANCE.**

I heaved a sigh, looking around. Guidance, guidance…and that was where again? All of the people here hadn't given me a chance to wander around the school and get used to it. I was so going to get lost.

Just then, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I felt a chill in the air, like what usually happened when I was about to encounter a ghost. I spun around, looking for anything other-worldly, but only found a giant sign that I had somehow missed labeled 'GUIDANCE' with an equally huge arrow pointing to the direction of the office.

"Man, now I really am getting paranoid about the ghosts," I muttered, following the direction of the Mighty Giant Arrow, ignoring the increasing amounts of A-list people I was seeing.

Just my darn luck.

--

I had already missed homeroom and first period, and was halfway through missing second as I sat there in the guidance office, counting ceiling tiles for the billionth time. Apparently Casper High was having difficulty admitting me as a student—there was no proof I had been registered there.

So while the secretary argued over the phone to my mother that no, I didn't in fact have any paperwork done, I was sitting next the actual office where already registered kids came in and out, mostly complaining about their schedules. Who knew so many "popular" people were signed up for Band?

And I was learning names, too. The shallow little witch I had bumped into that morning was named Paulina, and judging from the amount of boys drooling after her, she was one of the more popular girls in school. A muscular, dumb-looking football player named Dash was apparently trying to ask her out, while and equally muscular (though not so dumb looking) guy named Kwan cheered him on.

It's amazing what people will talk about when they don't notice you.

I leaned my head against the wall, and proceeded to bang it in a slow, rhythmic motion, although I didn't think anything would help me get out of here faster. A tall, serious-looking girl walked past me just then, and I did a double take when I realized it was the one who had been chasing those crazy people down the street yesterday.

She walked right past everyone and straight into the guidance office. I stopped abusing the wall and leaned in a little bit—hey, it's not my fault they didn't close the door all the way.

"Oh, hello Jazz. How are you doing on your first day back so far?" someone asked, which I could only assume was the counselor.

The girl—or I guess, Jazz—heaved a deep sigh. "Okay, I guess. It's just kind of hard ever since the accident, you know? Everybody here knows about it, so I keep getting weird looks in the hallways, even though it's been a month. I suppose they just don't know what to say to me."

I raised my eyebrows. I had no idea what happened to Jazz, but whatever it was, she seemed pretty stand-offish about it. Although she did mention something about an 'accident'—maybe she got into a car crash or something.

If that was the case, I was just glad she was alive. One less ghost for me to deal with.

"That's more than likely the case, dear." The counselor had a sickly-sweet voice, and I could just imagine her patting Jazz's hand in comfort. "It's tough when you're dealing with a situation like this. Just keep your real friends close by."

"Yeah." Jazz heaved another sigh. "It's just weird because this year would've been—"

"Samantha Manson?" the secretary boomed, blocking out the rest of Jazz's sentence. I jumped about ten feet in the air, ignoring questioning looks from the rest of the people in the room, and ran to the desk.

"Yes?"

"Congratulations, you're finally registered. Here's your registration card, schedule—" She thrust a wad of papers at me. "—and some forms we'd like you to fill out. If you hurry, you'll just make it to third period." She had barely looked at me during the whole transition, so she didn't even notice that I was making faces at her during the whole thing. "Now go on, scoot."

"Scooting," I muttered, looking through the massive amount of papers I had been handed. I was so busy looking that I didn't realize someone was walking right in front of me and looked up a second too late.

The paperwork literally flew out of my hands and landed in a huge heap, like a pile of leaves. I was half expecting someone to walk by and jump in it.

"Sorry!" I gasped, barely looking at the person I attacked, in case it was another A-list girl who felt like harassing me, and I was seriously in no mood for that. "My fault!"

"No harm done," the other person answered, and I looked up only to see that it was Jazz.

"Oh, hey," I said, like I knew her. Upon closer examination, I could see that her eyes were red and puffy, and there was some mascara smudged under them. I bit my lip. "Heh, I didn't smack into you that hard, did I?"

"Oh no," she answered, giving a small smile. "It's just...been tough, is all." She started helping me pick up all my papers, which surprised me—I guess the people I had associated with at this school so far had settled my first impression, and Jazz was the exact opposite of it.

"Thanks." I gave a hint of a smile. "I appreciate that. There's a whole mess of papers here, and no one's really been nice to me so far."

"Are you new?" She picked up my registration card. "Guess so," she answered herself. She smiled and added the card to my pile I was carrying, and stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Jasmine Fenton. Friends call me Jazz."

Still a bit shocked at how freakishly polite she was, I stuck out my own hand and shook hers. "The name's Sam Manson. I just moved here yesterday." I frowned the slightest bit, something about her name sounding familiar. 'Where have I heard 'Fenton' before?'

"Short for Samantha?"

"Unless you have a death wish."

Jazz looked stunned for a moment, and then giggled politely. "So Sam, are you having any trouble finding your way around?"

"Not really, considering I haven't been to a class yet," I groaned. "My butt's been in that chair since before homeroom. My spaz of a mother forgot to register me here."

"I know how you feel," she smiled. "My parents are loons themselves, although they're excellent for proving and disproving a thesis here and there." She laughed when I blinked in confusion. "I'm a future psychologist."

"Ah, that would explain it." I fished my schedule out of the killer paper pile and sighed. "I'm really going to get lost around here—I'm just lucky I found the darn school in the first place!"

"Hey, if you don't have any plans after school, why don't I give you a tour of the town? There's not much to see, but you could stay for dinner, too, if you wanted. I imagine you don't have much food in your house considering you just moved in."

I gave a grim smile, reeeally not wanting Jazz to know that I could afford a seven-course meal every day for the rest of my life without breaking a sweat. "Yeah, you got that right." I managed a slightly brighter smile. "Okay. I'll take you up on that offer."

"Great," Jazz smiled back, although as I looked harder, there seemed to be just the slightest hint of sadness behind it. "I'll warn my mom to make some normal food tonight."

"'Normal'?"

She bit her lip. "Don't ask. Anyway, I'll meet you at the front of the school after last period, okay?"

"Sure. See you later," I waved as the bell rang and I hurried to find my next class.

"That way!" Jazz pointed in the opposite of the direction I was going—of course.

"Thanks," I sighed, and gave a smile. "Later!"

_--_

_Hmm...looks like things are slightly looking up for Sam. Ah, well I'll have to change that, now won't I? ;D Many cookies and thank you's to the awesomely awesome people that reviewed last chapter: Phantom2B, Galateagirl, PhantomPrincess, divinedragon7, animeobsessed3191, katiesparks, Ohka Breynekai, Stone-Man85, lostmoonchild, cutereviewgirl, conan98002, Terrasina Dragonwagon, Kagome M.K, dArkliTe-sPirit, Nobody-Important91, strange organized chaos, Amber, ravenrogue19, and Psycho but fun. You guys rock my non-existent socks, and I hope you'll all **review **again!_


	5. Chapter Five

_-gets pelted with tomatoes- So sorry about not having this chapter up sooner! I've been working on a lot of different writing projects, including some lovely DxS oneshots. Muhahaha. But now I have here for you, an extra long chapter that I think you guys will like! Woot!_

_Onwards!_

**Chapter Five**

Third and fourth periods were as dull as rusty screw—and the teachers' voices kind of reminded me of one, too. Luckily, though, after fourth period came lunch. Sanctuary! And I didn't even get lost—I just followed the hoard of people towards the big building when the bell rang.

Unfortunately, my victory wasn't to last for long—I ran into two very big problems as I trekked through the lunch line.

One, about eighty percent of the choices were meat-based. MEAT! What's an ultra recyclo-vegetarian like me to do? I decided not to make a big deal about it—at least not yet—and just chose a salad and a bottle of water. I'd get this school's awareness about vegetarianism up _somehow._

Two, as I entered the cafeteria with my stupid tray of stupid salad, I realized I had no one to sit with. I could've sat with Jazz, but she was nowhere to be seen, and I had overheard that she was a junior—she probably had a different lunch period. For once in my life, I wished Tucker was glued to my side. I didn't realize how hard it would be the New Kid until seemingly millions of faces were scrutinizing me. I could practically _hear _the A-list's insults.

"Goth freak! Loser! Geek!"

Oh wait—they really _were _yelling insults.

I heaved a sigh and made my way towards a table in the back, where one lone girl was sitting at the corner, hastily eating a bagged lunch. I attempted to give her a small smile, but she didn't even glance my way. Whatever.

I scanned the cafeteria, wondering if I'd ever find a friend as good as Tucker here, when I noticed something odd about one of the cafeteria ladies. No one else seemed to be noticing that she was floating about a foot in the air—but then again, maybe it was because they couldn't even see her.

'_The first ghost I encounter in Amity Park is a _cafeteria lady_?' _I thought in disgust. I remembered joking about that to Tucker last night. Oh, that boy was going to get it! I _knew _he was jinxing me!

But on the other hand, the lady was just floating there kind of sadly. Maybe she wasn't out to destroy—she really didn't look so bad...

"MEAT!"

...Or not.

I stood up, watching horror as she grabbed the various meat-induced entrees and flung them into the air, much to the confusion and horror of oh, _everyone _in the room. It didn't totally register that something evil was happening on the spectral plane, though, until the ghost managed to fuse all the meat together and create a sort of—well, meaty shield for herself. But because the slabs of beef were still earthly, no one knew there was a ghost inside there—they just saw a giant meat monster.

"Sweet mother of mutton," I muttered. Everyone around me was now screaming and running from the cafeteria in panic.

"GIANT MEAT LADY!" the jock called Dash cried, running for his life. I noted with amusement that he had an oddly girlish scream.

"Ew, that's like, disgusting!" Paulina shrieked, making sure no meat drippings got in her hair. Shallow little witch.

The girl who had been sitting at the corner of my table was frozen in the spot, but looked like she wanted to fight—but how can you battle something you really can't see? Once this meat was gone, there was going to be nothing there—to everyone else, anyway.

"Meat, meat, MEAT!" the ghost chanted, creating little meat babies to attack the few people left in the room. Well, _this _was odd. I've honestly never had to deal with a beef-obsessed ghost before. It was really too bad she had tried to attack everyone though—now I couldn't go and talk to her without looking really suspicious. I wondered why she was so mad at the meat anyway.

"SOMEONE'S CHANGED THIS MEATLOAF RECIPE! THIS RECIPE HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR FIFTY YEARS! RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Well, that answered _that._

I looked down at the floor, trying to compose myself. What the heck was I supposed to do in a situation like this? I had no way of attacking the meat monster, and I couldn't talk to the ghostly Lunch Lady unless I wanted to be asked some major questions—sure, practically everyone in the room _was _gone, but how would it look if the Mother of Mutton was defeated and I was the only one there? Suspicious, that's how.

Now I _really _wished Tucker was here. Not only is he good at coming up with ways to get me out of jams like this, but he inhales meat like there's no tomorrow. He would've polished this whole mess up, no problem. This was definitely the first time in my life I regretted being a vegetarian.

'_I need someone to help me out of this...'_

"I'm changing the menu—permanently!"

My head snapped up as I heard a heroic, slightly nervous voice. The next thing I knew, there was a blur of movement as someone—as in, a _ghostly _someone—knocked the Lunch Lady's less meaty form from her shield. The meat floated there for a second before falling into a huge pile with a disgusting _squish._

My eyes darted around the room in shock as I tried to find the ghost that had saved me from a potentially awkward situation, but I found nothing except terrified students and teachers tiptoeing their way back into the cafeteria, noticing that the meat had lost its evilness.

I snuck towards the back and out the door while the teachers poked the pile, afraid it was going to leap up and attack them. I needed to walk around and process what had just happened—plus, it wasn't like today could get any _more _weird.

Or maybe this time I was cursing _myself._

--

The rest of the day was uneventful and mutton-free, except that I couldn't get the ghost who had saved me out of my head. It was odd because he didn't even technically rescue me—contrary to what Tucker believed, I had zero ghost allies. Honestly, I thought they were all out to get me, but this time, they attacked each other. I'd been out of Dimmsdale for less than two days, and already the whole world was upside down.

I was _so _out of it that I nearly missed Jazz when the final bell rang, ending the first day of school at Casper High. In fact, a bus probably would've run me over if Jazz herself hadn't pulled me out of the way of the bus loop.

"Are you alright Sam?" she asked, her face full of concern. It appeared she was the only one, too—everyone else was laughing at me. Eh, you win some, you lose some.

"Yeah...I guess," I answered. "I mean...well, I was in the cafeteria when that...uh, monster attacked...meat monster...and, well anyway, it sure was one heck of a first day, if I do say so myself." Yeah, like _that _made any sense.

"Oh, you saw that creature?" Jazz sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's ridiculous. They made us eat in our next period classrooms for my lunch period while they cleaned up all the meat. I'm hearing rumors that it was some kind of...ghost, but—" He gaze fell to the ground as she shifted her books in her other. "—I refuse to believe in that. Ghosts don't exist. They _don't._"

My eyes widened. "Passionate about hating ghosts, aren't you?" Though, in retrospect, this was a good thing. At least if I ever ran into one around her, she'd just assume I was crazy and talking to myself instead of some ghost.

...Okay, so maybe it wasn't _such _a good thing.

Jazz opened her mouth to say something, but then sighed and shook her head. "Yes I am, in fact. But anyway, do you need to call your parents before we go on our little tour of the town? Or maybe we should stop by your house?"

"No, no, calling them is fine," I coughed. I wasn't in the mood for Jazz to see my massive, oversized house. Although I got the vibe that she could keep a secret, no matter how important, I just really wasn't ready to show of my 'bling-bling' status to anyone at Casper High.

I pulled out my cell phone, noticing Jazz's eyebrows go way up as I flipped it open. "What?"

"That's a pretty nice phone. What'd you do, rob a bank?"

I laughed. "Not exactly." I punched in the speed dial button for my mother's cell phone, and she answered right away.

"Hi, Sammykins. How was your first day?"

"Hey Mom. Uh, it was alright—as a matter of fact, a girl named Jazz has offered to give me a tour of the town and invited me to dinner at her house. I'd just thought I'd let you know."

"Oh..." Mom paused for a second. "Well, that's just splendid, dear! You girls have fun now. Buh-bye."

"Later," I grimaced, rolling my eyes.

Jazz gave me a sideways smile. "Let me guess—you and your mom are total opposites?"

"Pretty much," I agreed. "She's day, and I'm night. It was pretty much pure torture to be stuck in a car with her and my dad on a drive clear across the state."

"I'd imagine." She was smiling a little more now as we climbed into her car—a pink convertible. How fitting. "What was your old hometown like?"

"What, Dimmsdale?" I smirked. "Pretty boring. It's the kind of place where everybody's known each other since pre-K, and we were all about to go into the same high school. I've known just about everybody in that town my whole life."

"Were they upset when you moved?"

"Eh...I can't really say most of them were...just my best friend Tucker, basically. Although I think he misses my—" I was about to say 'home theater', but that would pretty much guarantee I'd blow my 'I'm not filthy rich' cover. "—my, uh, cell phone," I lied. "Yeah...he's really into technology, and like you said, this is a nice phone, so he feels he's technology-deprived."

Jazz gave me a funny look, but kept on driving. "Dimmsdale, was it?" I nodded. "Well, it seems like Dimmsdale is a lot like Amity Park. We're a pretty tight-knit town, and everybody knows everybody's business." She let out a huge sigh. "Though lately, that's becoming more and more of a burden."

"How so?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head. "Never mind. Oh, look over there—that's the town's park."

I was dying to ask her how everybody knowing her business was troubling her, but I turned my head towards the direction she was pointing at anyway. Already, some kids I had seen around school were tossing a football around, scaring the living daylights (and dentures) out of an old man sitting on a bench when it smacked him in the back of the head.

"And over there's the Nasty Burger, another popular hangout," she pointed. I had to laugh—Jazz sounded _so _much like a professional tour guide, even though she was talking about a place with the word 'nasty' in its name.

"People actually eat there?" I asked.

"Yup. I will admit, they hold Amity Park's best burgers and curly fries."

"Well in _that _case, I can see why it's called 'nasty'," I smirked. "I'm an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian."

"Good luck finding any good veggie places around here," Jazz smiled good-naturedly. "Most people here aren't like that."

"Eh, that's okay. I've been abnormal my whole life—it's pretty safe to say I'm used to it."

"Well..." Jazz scrunched up her nose. "Sam, you don't seem _abnormal, _just different. There's a big difference between the two."

"No, trust me...I'm as strange as they come." Although _why _I was so different was something she didn't need to know, not ever.

Jazz didn't really reply, but instead pointed out the library, and some stores that were on the way. For being such a small town, Amity Park could sure cram in stuff to do.

The entire tour lasted around two hours, and our final stop was Jazz's house, which made me finally understand why she hadn't said much about it.

The home seemed fairly normal-looking—as long as you didn't glance up. The place was literally _glowing_ with a strange laboratory structure on the roof, different silver gadgets protruding from the main base. A huge, glowing sign proclaimed the place to be called 'FENTONWORKS'.

_Fenton_. That name...

All at once, it flowed into my head as to where I'd heard it before, so I wasn't at all shocked when Jazz turned to me before we entered the house and said, "Excuse my parents, Sam. Just remember that they mean well, and...well, they're not trying to hurt you."

"Why exactly would they?" I asked, already know the answer.

"My parents are 'professional' ghost hunters," she answered, making air quotes around the word 'professional'. "So if they freak you out too badly, I give you full permission to run out of the house screaming."

"Oh, I wouldn't do that to you," I laughed nervously. "Trust me, I've dealt with weirder...but just barely."

"If you say so." She bit her lip and slowly opened the front door, letting us both in.

I was starting to grow uneasy. _Fenton, _of course! How could I have forgotten _that? _'Fenton' was the last name of the ghost hunters Tucker had been telling me about!

Of course, it was unlikely that they had my strange little ability, but what if they did? Or what if they were looking for someone like me, and wanted me to get ghosts for them to perform experiments on or something? Or maybe _they _were in a league with the ghosts, and some of my enemies were in cahoots with them, looking to throw me into an endless abyss...

"Mom, Dad, this is Sam. She's new in town."

Or they could be the two crazy, jumpsuited people I had seen chasing an out-of-shape teacher down the sidewalk.

My mouth fell open, but I quickly snapped it shut when Jazz's mom gave me a warm smile, extending a hand out towards me. "Hi Sam," she greeted. She didn't seem so bad, I decided, as we shook hands. "I'm Maddie Fenton, and this is my husband—"

"The competent Jack Fenton!" her dad bellowed, a huge grin plastered on his face. He took out some silvery doodad and pointed it at me, pressing a whole bunch of buttons, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth in frustration. "So Sam, have you ever seen a ghost?" he asked as I threw my hands up in surrender.

Maddie sighed. "Jack, I told you—"

"Aw, c'mon baby, it never hurts to ask!"

I turned to Jazz, and she rolled her eyes, giving me an 'I told you so' look. "Well, I'm going to drop my stuff off upstairs—back in a flash." She hurried up the stairs.

The gadget in Jack's hands suddenly exploded, sending green goop all over himself and Maddie. I vaguely recognized it as the plasma-like substance a ghost usually leaked out when it was hurt.

Maddie heaved a sigh and turned to me. "I'm sorry sweetie, we're just going to fix this and get ourselves cleaned up—Jazz won't be long, so just make yourself comfortable."

"Alright," I agreed, still slightly shocked that these goofballs were the so-called 'world's best ghost hunters', and they didn't even recognize what the green stuff was from. Then again, it also posed the question as to how their little thingamajig had been full of the stuff in the first place...

I decided not to worry about it and sat down on the couch, glancing around the spacious living room. There were tons of family photos plastered on the walls, and I squinted, taking a closer look at them while I waited for Jazz.

A lot of the pictures were of Jazz herself—as a baby, a toddler, a pre-teen. I smirked at a baby picture of herself clad in nothing but her birthday suit, sitting in a bathtub with her hair sticking up wildly.

There was a full family portrait, so I got up to have a closer look at it. I recognized Jazz and her parents, of course, but there was also another person posing—a boy who looked around my age, with messy black hair and big blue eyes. He looked a little uncomfortable to be in front of a camera, but the smile on his face clearly stated that he was a dorky, nerdy goofball. In fact, I actually cracked a smile just looking at his own captured one.

As I took a harder look at the wall, I found out this boy showed up a lot—which only confused me. Jazz didn't mention she had another family member—was he a cousin? A foster kid? An adopted son? 'Brother' also crossed my mind, but that was absurd—surely Jazz would've mentioned to me if she had a younger sibling. She had, after all, freely told me about her oddball parents, and invited me over to meet them nonetheless.

I sat back down on the couch, crossing my arms in confusion. Usually I wasn't that much of a snoop, and family was family—yet, I couldn't get this boy out of my mind, or why his face was plastered on the Fenton family wall. It was like my mysterious ghostly rescuer that day—neither would leave my brain.

Maybe they were connected somehow...it was definitely possible. Maybe this boy had the same little gift that I did; but he ran away or something because his parents would use him to get at the ghosts...

I frowned. Even so, why wouldn't Jazz have mentioned him? Okay, she _did _claim she had a rather large hatred of ghosts, but even so, it didn't seem like she would keep a sibling a secret—after all, in her eyes, Jack and Maddie were completely loony, yet she told me about them of her own free will.

So what was it?

Jazz walked down the stairs just as her parents came up the other stairs. Before I could ask anybody what was up with the kid in the picture, Maddie clapped her hands in delight. "Dinner's almost ready! I hope you like hot dogs, Sam—Jack and I invented a way to cook them ten times faster than a microwave!"

Jazz eyeballed me and raised an eyebrow—her parents didn't know I didn't eat meat. Oops. But then again, how would they know, anyway?"

"Um, actually Mrs. Fenton—"

"Oh, call me Maddie, dear."

"Maddie...actually, I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh!" She looked a little surprised. "Jazz didn't mention that...well, I'll just whip up a salad for you; will that be alright?"

"Uhh...sure," I smiled. Jazz's parents seemed a bit...overbearing, but they were definitely nice enough people. Plus, Jazz herself seemed to have a brain, unlike the rest of the people at Casper High—maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live in Amity Park. This place was going to be just dandy.

"BEWARE!"

My eyes darted towards the right just as I was about to follow the Fentons into the dining room. Jazz noticed I had stopped in my tracks and was giving me another funny look.

"Are you alright, Sam?"

"Huh?" I shook my head. "Uh, fine...actually, I needed to, uh...use the restroom before we sit down to eat."

"Sure," she replied, the weird look she was giving me not leaving her face. "Upstairs, second door on your right."

"Thanks." I made my way up the stairs, my eyes glancing every which way, barely noticing that Jazz was _still _looking at me funny, but she finally gave up with a sigh and went into the dining room.

I, on the other hand, was on the hunt. I mean, that voice was _really _loud, and the fact nobody else heard it only lead me to believe that there was a ghost in the Fenton's house. I was just glad none of Jack and Maddie's ghost-hunting gadgets were going off.

When I was at the top of the stairs, instead of heading into the bathroom, I wandered around the hall, trying to find the ghost without being _too_ much of a sneak. At least I _knew _Jazz; there were often times I'd break into random houses in Dimmsdale looking for ghosts when the people that lived there hadn't known me whatsoever. So remember—snooping for ghosts is only to be left to a professional.

I wasn't _feeling _like some kind of expert, though, as the minutes wore on—although I had _sworn _I had heard a voice, I wasn't seeing any ghosts. I edged towards the room at the end of the hall and gently tried to turn the knob—but it was locked.

"Hmm..." I muttered, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall. Maybe I was going totally psycho. Too many years in this "business" had me hallucinating, or something.

"BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

I jumped up as a round, pudgy ghost flew through the door of the locked room, a whole bunch of boxes in his arms. He dropped them when he landed on the floor with a nice _thunk_. Glaring at the door angrily, he wiggled his hands in an extremely lame attempt to be frightening.

"_BEWARE! _I HAVE POWER OF ALL CONTAINORS CARDBOARD AND SQUARE!"

Just as I was about to ask this bimbo why he was bellowing at the door—not that it mattered since I was the only one who could hear him—_another _ghost phased through the door, his arms crossed in annoyance.

My eyes widened. He was a ghost, that was for sure—and yet, something about his demeanor seemed different. I mean, he was pale all right—but not overly so, like a normal ghost—or me. He was wearing a spandex black and white jumpsuit, which complimented his snowy white hair and glowing green eyes.

"Look, this is the second time today you've haunted that room," he told the Box Ghost in a bored tone, with the slightest hint of bitterness underneath. "I'm sick of your lame old box puns. Can't you find a warehouse to haunt or something?"

"BEW—" the Box Ghost stopped midway of his bellowing and blinked in confusion, as if he was thinking '_Why didn't I think of that?'_

"Or better yet..." Mr. Spandex Ghost said, giving a half smile. "Why don't I _help _you there?"

Before he knew it, Box Ghost had gotten severely pummeled in the gut by Spandex Boy, rendering him intangible and sending him flying through the ceiling. A faint cry of "BEWAAAAAAAAARE!" could be heard until there was silence.

I stood there, my mouth hanging open in shock. Not _only _were those two of the _weirdest _ghosts I had ever seen, but they were _fighting _each other! Usually they would all rally up against me, or whatever human they felt was responsible for their death, but this...this was completely unheard of.

I still remained there, even when Spandex Boy turned to go back into the locked room, but stopped short when he saw me. He eyes widened for a second and then drooped, and I realized that he thought I probably couldn't see him. I couldn't help but keep on staring...he seemed very familiar somehow...

Just as he made himself intangible to enter the room, I mustered up everything I had and cleared my throat, looking straight at the boy, who had once again turned "solid" and was wearing a look equal to the one I had had just moments before.

"So," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Who exactly are _you?_"

--

_Oh, I wonder who! –giggles like the fangirl she is- _

Thank you sooo much to all of my lovely, awesomely awesome reviewers for the last chapter: rikagirls, weirdIT, divinedragon7, Kagome M.K, Phantom2B, strange organized chaos, Iamthedemonatrix02, Galateagirl, Serenity the Fallen, conan98002, dArkliTe-sPirit, Kryptonite Riot Girl, silvermoonphantom, lostmoonchild, Ac-chan, Doomsdaydevice _# 23548, Terrasina Dragonwagon, dPhantoMfreak, shadow929, flyingwolfatheart, WWMTgirl, and Mizz Moony Luver. You guys rockage my sockage and I hope you'll **review **again!_


	6. Chapter Six

_-glances at calendar- Darn it...it's not June 9th yet! Curses! –falls over- Soon enough...bwhahaha. –cough-_

_Um. Yes. Well, here FINALLY, is the next chapter. Woot! Forgive me if anyone's too horribly OOC...this is the first time I've really actually attempted to write Jack or Maddie, so...yeah. –sweatdrops- I'm more of a fluffernutter than anything. :P_

_Speaking of which—Terrasina, don't worry, soon enough there will be fluff beyond your wildest dreams! It is, after all, my specialty. ;D Lately, I can't write ANYTHING without it being a little bit fluffy. They really need to add 'fluff' as a genre on this site. _

_Okay enough of that! Presenting..._

**Chapter Six**

Well, he sure knew how to put those glowing green eyes to use: Spandex Boy stared at me for a full thirty seconds before his jaw hit the floor.

"You..." Spandex Boy's mouth was hanging open, and he was as white as, well...a ghost. "You can see me?"

"Obviously," I sighed. I've had this conversation with ghosts _many _times before—that is, with the ones that didn't want to disembody me on sight. "What exactly are you doing here, might I ask?"

A pause. "Well—" he hesitantly began, but at that moment, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Sam!" Crud. It was Jazz—who, of course, thought I had been in the bathroom this time. Great—now she probably thought I had constipation or something.

"Sam!" she called again. "Are you okay in there?"

Without another word to Spandex Boy, I ran right past him and towards the bathroom, acting as if I was coming out of it, just as Jazz made her way to the top.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, pretending to wipe my hands on my skirt. "So, how about that dinner," I added, before she could ask anymore questions. I glanced over my shoulder as we walked towards the dining room, only to notice that Spandex Boy was gone.

I inwardly sighed. _Here we go..._

--

"So Sam," Maddie said brightly once we'd all been served and made small talk. I had to admit, she could put together a mean salad—even I couldn't have done any better. "Jazz tells me you've moved here from Dimmsdale. That's clear across the state, isn't it?"

"Yes," I answered, taking a bite of lettuce, watching with a bit of fascination—yet more disgust--as Jack managed to shove two hot dogs, bun, relish, ketchup and all, into his mouth. "Uh, actually, this makes it my first full day here. We got into town yesterday evening."

"How do you like Amity Park so far?"

"It's..." I paused. Considering it had barely been twenty-four hours and I had run into _three _ghosts, all of which were unlike any I had ever dealt with before, I had to say, Amity Park was creeping me out a bit.

Though the fact that I was seeing ghosts in the first place was _not _something I wanted to mention to a 'professional' ghost hunter.

"It's alright," I finally answered. "I mean, school was basically torture and Jazz was the only sane person I talked to all day, but I'm sure it'll get better." Yeah, unless I ran into Spandex Boy again, although judging from the way he fled when he had a chance, the last thing on his mind was beating me to a pulp. Good thing.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll get better for you," Jazz sympathized. "My freshman year wasn't too great, so I kept myself going by studying, and it totally paid off. Maybe you should try it out."

"Maybe," I shrugged. My grades, with or without studying, were decent enough to pretty much guarantee I'd pass through the portals of Casper High with flying colors—especially considering what a snore the teachers were. But, of course, they meant nothing.

Helping ghosts, whether I wanted to or not, would _always _come first. I mean, I couldn't exactly ignore them—it was like this inner voice was screaming at me to help them, getting them _off _this human plane so I could finally chill without some spooky being dragging me away. I could've _easily _ignored Spandex Boy and the Box Ghost, but did I? Noooo. It was those darn morals.

"Oh, cheer up dear," Maddie suddenly said, snapping me out of my train of thought. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Though I must say, you do seem very sure of yourself for a freshman. That alone will make it easier for you to deal with those everyday things."

Everyday things? Like what, giant meat monsters?

"Well, I guess you could say I got that from my best friend back in Dimmsdale," I smiled. "Tucker was the scaredy-cat of the two of us, and he was always getting into more trouble than I wanted to deal with, so I've had to save him from certain disaster many times. That in turn probably made me a little overconfident."

Of course, the 'trouble' Tucker had gotten into involved angry, killer ghosts that wanted to rip all humans' heads off, but nobody at this table needed to know _that._

"Ah, so you're no damsel in distress," Maddie smiled back. "I'm the same way. Isn't that right Jack?" Jack didn't answer since he was busy squeezing about half a bottle of ketchup onto yet another hot dog. Maddie looked back at me and winked.

I hid a smile. "So, it's just you three living here?" I blurted out.

In a split second, everyone's face—even Jack's—froze, and then faltered a bit. Jack and Maddie looked at each other worriedly, while Jazz was busy staring at the table like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

I cursed myself for blurting out something like that, but more so for the fact that I just realized—the kid in all their family pictures? Yeah, he was probably dead.

Ghosts. Oh, goody.

It was Jazz who finally cleared her throat and broke the silence. "Yeah...just me, Mom, and Dad," she said carefully, now looking at me instead of that oh-so-interesting table.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, a twisting feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. "It's just that, uh, I was looking at the pictures on your walls and saw a boy in some of them...and, well, I hope I'm not being rude or anything, but I was just wondering who he was."

To my surprise, Jack suddenly stood up, knocking over his glass of water in the process, and thundered down the stairs, muttering something under his breath. The three of us left at the table, watched with wide eyes until he disappeared from view and the door to whatever room he was in closed with a _slam._

Maddie heaved a sigh. "I should go talk to him..." she trailed off, not quite looking at me or Jazz, but instead stared at the floor as she too went down the stairs.

I blinked and looked at Jazz. "Uh...bad question, I'm guessing?"

"I don't see why they _still _insist on being ghost hunters!" was the answer that flew out of her mouth. "It's just...how can they live with themselves? Ghosts aren't real, and _nothing _is going to bring him back!"

"..."

Jazz heaved in a deep breath at my very confused stare. "I'm sorry...well, it _is _about that boy in the picture..."

"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want," I interrupted, even though I was dying to know. Ah, well. I'd find out _somehow_.

"No...I'll tell you." She took another deep breath, not quite looking at me. "The boy in the picture...he was..._is_...my little brother, Danny. He...he died last month."

"Oh..." I trailed off, a feeling of foreboding settling in my stomach. I ignored it. "May I ask how?"

Jazz's hands were shaking, but she clasped them together, trying to hide it. "He...he got into one of my parent's inventions. They were trying to create some kind of 'ghost zone'...or something. It's completely ridiculous, but they still insist there's some kind of ghost world out there."

Yeah, there is. It's called the human plane.

"Anyway, it didn't quite work, so Mom and Dad just quit working on it...but I guess Danny felt bad that it wasn't working, because it seems like he went inside, trying to activate the stupid thing." Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes, and I squirmed. I have _no _patience for crying people, but this story about Danny had piqued my curiosity.

"And?" I prompted.

"And the next thing I knew, we found him lying there...right outside the portal's doors. They were jammed shut, and there was this weird green smoke coming from Danny's body. And it was just so weird...he had been wearing one of Dad's old jumpsuits, and the colors were inverted...not to mention his hair was white."

My eyes widened. "Oh, that's..."

"I just hate the fact that Mom and Dad still _insist _on their stupid ghost hunting!" Jazz suddenly screeched, causing me to jump about a foot in the air. "Their stupid invention is what _killed _one of their own children! Why can't they understand that he's not coming back?" True to sudden mood swings, she burst into tears and buried her face in her hands, shaking violently.

"Um..." I got up and slowly patted her back. Despite my experience in dealing with spirits, I had practically none with humans. Tucker, really, was the only human I dealt with on a regular basis, sometimes he was so weird he didn't deserve the title of 'human'. Plus, I had only just met Jazz, and I had no idea what to say to comfort her without sounding like a total wacko.

'_Of course, that's never stopped you before,'_ I thought, sighing to myself. "Look, Jazz...I'm really sorry that I brought the subject up."

She removed her hands from her face. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were really red and puffy. "Oh, don't be," choked. "You didn't know...and if we're going to be friends, then you were going to find out sometime."

I did a slight double-take at her words, though I didn't know why. "Yeah, I guess...anyway, uh...I'm going to get going, okay? You look like you need to be alone for awhile..."

"Oh, don't be silly." She put on an extremely fake smile. "I can drive you home. Really, it's no big deal."

"I don't think you're in much of a condition to drive." I gave her a half-smile before patting her shoulder again. "I'll find my way back okay. You just get some rest, okay? Thank your mom for the salad for me."

"Sure," she sighed, and then gave me a real smile, though it was small. "Thanks, Sam. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Same here," I said, getting my backpack and letting myself out. I wasn't worried about getting home in the least—I had other business to attend to.

I walked a little bit away from FentonWorks, checking to make sure nobody was nearby. When the coast was clear, I looked up at the home, crossing my arms.

"Danny, wherever you are, you can come out now."

I tapped my foot and waited. I was glad I had figured out the ghost's name, since I didn't think he'd appreciate being called 'Spandex Boy', even though my suspicions had been confirmed and he was, indeed, wearing spandex.

"Danny?"

A few seconds later, that jumpsuit-clad ghost with the brilliant glowing green eyes materialized in front of me, looking slightly confused. His eyes widened at the sight of me. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah..." I cocked my head. "So I'm right? The name's Danny?"

He hummed in agreement, still staring at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

"What? Oh, I, uh..." he stuttered, suddenly find the ground he was floating above veeery interesting. "I'm just, um, surprised that you can see me. Not even Mom and Dad have been able to."

"Well, I just happen to be special. Lucky me. Now tell me, why are you still here?"

"Huh?"

I rolled my eyes. I usually wasn't this forward with ghosts, especially with ones I had just met, but it was obvious Danny wasn't out to destroy me...yet. Actually, judging from what I had seen so far, he was out to get _other _ghosts, which still didn't make sense, but whatever.

"I _asked _if you still knew why you were here," I repeated, starting to walk. Where I was going, I had no idea, but it was better than standing around.

"Why I'm..." Danny paused. "You mean this isn't it?"

"Duh," I replied, sensing I was about to lose my patience. "What, you think you're supposed to float around, haunting your family for the rest of your...uh, afterlife?"

"Well..." he trailed off. "I don't know."

"So let's recap," I said. "Your parents are ghost hunters, even though as far as I know, nobody but me can see them. You were killed trying to active some kinda zone thingy—"

"The Fenton Portal."

"I'm sorry?"

"That's the name of it. The Fenton Portal," he verified rather sadly, his hair hanging in front of his face.

I stared at him. "Okay, the _Fenton Portal_, and...you fill in the blanks."

He heaved a sigh. "Apparently, my parents are trying to figure out exactly how I died, while trying to locate me...my ghost...or at least my mom is, anyway."

I gave a half smile, thinking of how...well, _incompetent _Jack seemed to be.

"My sister Jazz thinks they should give up their research entirely, but I know _that's _not going to happen," he grimaced. "They've been studying ghosts ever since their college days."

"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed. And here I was, having this little ability, and all I wanted was for all the ghosts to skip merrily away from me.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "It's just...I hate seeing how upset they get when they can't figure it out. And to think, I've only been dead a month. It's only going to get worse."

"You're handling it a lot better than most spirits do," I said nonchalantly. "Most of them want to rip my guts out the minute I bring it to their attention that they're dead." My eyes suddenly widened at my own words. Oh great, now I had put the idea in Danny's head!

I glanced over at him, only to notice that he was now staring at me with a weird look on his face. "Really?" he asked, sounding confused. "Why would they do that?"

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "Because...because they're dead and I'm not."

"Well that's stupid," he muttered, looking away from me.

I could not have been anymore shocked than if I had suddenly appeared in front of my house out of nowhere—and looking up, I realized that my feet _had _led me home, somehow. I shook my head, trying to drive any crazy thoughts out of my head. "Uh, well, I'm home now..." I said, starting to climb up the steps to the front door. "You can go back or...whatever."

"Nice place," he nodded, looking the house up and down. "You don't seem like the type of person who's rich."

I rolled my eyes. "My point exactly. I'd rather people like me instead of my money, you know?"

He shrugged again, like it was a completely ridiculous idea—c'mon, who _wouldn't _want to be popular?—and then waved.

"Later, Danny," I said.

"You can count on it," was his reply as he shot off, flying into the night sky.

I fumbled with the front door, my hands shaking a little. Why did it sound like he was sealing my fate when he said that?

--

_Kekeke. The start of mucho MADNESS. –evil grin- This should be interesting...veeery interesting...poor Danny. Let's all give him hugs—especially the awesome people who reviewed the last chapter: shadow929, dPhantoMfreak, Ohka Breynekai, divinedragon7, WWMTgirl, Star-In-The-Sky-25, luv2bamom, lostmoonchild, Terrasina Dragonwagon, conan98002, dArkliTe-sPirit, SilverstarsEbonyskies, passing4insane, strange organized chaos, Sweeteen19, Black January, and Sasia. You guys rule! My sockage is totally rocked! –grins like an idiot- Hopefully you'll all **review **again!_


	7. Chapter Seven

_AHHH! I'm sooo sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. A friend of mine came to visit for a week, so I basically wasn't on the computer, and then my modem all but exploded so we had to get that fixed...which took even longer. RAWR. -plots to destroy cable internet- Not to mention all the writer's block and the fact that I'm now addicted to Final Fantasy 8 and spend a lot of my time on the PS2 instead online. Whoops. :D But hey, at least it got me through this whole lack-of-internet thing..._

_ANYWAYS! I love this chapter. It made me giggle when I was writing it, hehehe. –runs off giggling- And to those of you who didn't like the supposed lack of Tucker, don't worry—I've always seen him as a sort of Cupid figure for Danny and Sam...and this will be no exception! MWHAHAHAHA. _

_Now back to our scheduled chapter, already in progress:  
_

**Chapter Seven**

"I'm telling you, Tucker," I complained in the webcam, clearly exasperated. "There's something weird about the ghosts here. Danny's the closest one to any of the ghosts I dealt with back home, and he's a pretty strange case, when you think about it."

"Well, none of them have tried ripping your limbs off, right?" Tucker laughed, and I briefly wished it wasn't over a webcam online so I could whack him upside the head. "So far it seems like Danny's the only one who realizes you can see them."

"I guess," I mumbled.

It was a Friday night, and of course, I was at home with my butt sitting in a chair. Only instead of it being Tucker and I watching movies in the home theater, we were watching each other through webcams, chatting online.

I had told Tucker about the strange Lunch Lady ghost and the Box Ghost, and he was cracking up before I even told him about Danny. "I _told _you the ghosts would find you there! Oh yeah, _who's _the smart one now?"

When I did mention Danny to him, though, Tucker didn't find it the least bit suspicious that the spirit of a teenage boy, who was the son of two ghost hunters, was beating up other ghosts—who seemed to be coming out of nowhere—into oblivion. Nope, not one bit. All he did was fall over laughing when I mentioned that Danny wore spandex.

Sheesh.

Which brings me back to the conversation.

"So, what's it like to have a ghost following you around that doesn't want to destroy you?" Tucker asked, snapping me out of my daze.

I narrowed my eyes. "He isn't 'following me around'," I growled. "If he was, don't you think I'd notice?"

"Yeah, but like you said earlier, he was with you at school today—making sure you didn't get lost, I hear..."

"Will you knock it off?" I practically hissed, but only because it was true. Danny had showed up right when I needed him, to my utter shock—and pointed me in the direction of my homeroom and first period, two of the classes I had missed thanks to the lovely first-day-of-school-screw-up I had to endure. When I asked him how he knew this—after all, he was going to be coming here as a freshman, like me—his face fell and he mumbled something about watching Jazz.

Of course, right after that, he had disappeared, thanks to me and my big, insensitive mouth. I hadn't seen him since.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped about ten feet in the air, I swear. After managing not to scream at the top of my lungs, I whirled around and saw Danny floating behind me, his arms crossed and his hair flopping in his face in that really annoying way that made me want to chop it all off.

"You scared me!" I said, trying to sound calmer than I actually was. I mean, c'mon: a ghost had scared the living daylights out of me. You don't get more cliché than that.

"Sorry," he shrugged, not sounding sorry at all. He continued staring at the computer. "Like I asked, what are you doing?"

"Uh, Sam? Is there something going on that I should know about?" Tucker asked. "You started freaking out, even more so than usual."

"Ha, ha," I sneered. "Sorry...Danny just randomly appeared in my bedroom, with no permission whatsoever because it's not a customary practice for me to let ghosts into my room where they have full access at disembodying me."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "I'm not going to disembody you, Sam."

"That's what they all say." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, even though for some odd reason, I could tell that he was genuinely joking. It was so weird that here I was, chatting up with a ghost—one I had known for about a day—and exchanging witty banter with him back and forth as if I'd known him...well, when he was alive. The only other person I'd ever felt so comfortable around so quickly was Tucker. Weird? Very. It still gave me the creeps.

"They all say what?" Tucker suddenly asked, snapping me out of my train of thought.

"Danny says he's not going to rip my limbs off." I raised an eyebrow at the webcam. "Y'know Tucker, if you could see him, I think you guys would get along."

"How can you tell?"

"Just a hunch." I turned back and glanced at Danny. "Was there something in particular you wanted?"

"Yeah, a ham sandwich!" Tucker called through the screen.

"I'm not talking to you, Foley," I replied without taking my eyes off Danny.

The ghost boy sighed. "Well, I..." He cleared his throat nervously. "I was actually wondering if you wanted to go on my ghost patrol with me."

I couldn't hide my smirk. "Ghost patrol?"

Danny's shoulders fell at my amusement. "Fine, if you don't want to..."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, stopping him before he could fly through the ceiling or however it was that he got in here. "Sorry. Sarcasm's a habit. What do you mean by 'ghost patrol'?"

He blinked, his eyes brightening a little, if that was even possible. "Well, ever since I died, there've been a lot of weird ghosts around, trying to terrorize the town..."

"Terrorize the town?"

He frowned, and I sighed heavily. Geez, was Tucker the _only _one in this world who could appreciate my sarcasm?

"Sorry. Go ahead."

"Anyway...there have been a lot of weird ghosts around, so ever since I've been starting to see them, I've been flying around, trying to catch them before they start trouble. Kind of like a patrol," he added quickly before I could say anything. "And since you're the first person I've ever met that can actually see them, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

I blinked, totally stunned. A _ghost _was inviting _me _to _hunt _other ghosts? What was wrong with the world I was living in! If Danny was a normal case, this would be the time where he would be blasting me into oblivion with that ghostly power so many other ghosts seem to love using on me. No, instead he was inviting me along, like I was some kind of friend of his.

A human, friends with a ghost? It could _never _happen.

Then again, I'm not one to play by the rules.

"Okay," I answered. "I'll go with you." Before I could see his reaction, I turned to the computer screen, where Tucker looked confused beyond all belief. "Hey Tuck...Danny and I are going to scour the town for evil mind-controlling spirits. Cover for me?"

_Well. _I always knew Tucker had a big mouth—after all, he certainly talks enough—but his jaw had practically hit the floor. In fact, he had probably been stuffing his face with something when I wasn't looking, because there was clearly a chewed up...something in his mouth. _Ew._

"Uh, Tucker, I don't like _see-food_," I coughed, scowling. He quickly swallowed whatever he was eating and just stared with wide eyes. I tried again. "Cover for me?"

"Huh? What? Oh, yeah, sure," he finally agreed, tapping some stuff on his PDA. "I've still got all the sleeping excuses on here. Just crank up the volume on your computer and you're set."

"Thanks Tuck. I owe you one."

"Correction--you owe me..." He paused, his PDA whirring and clicking. "...Three-hundred and seventy-six, counting this one."

"Yeah, whatever." I rolled my eyes, knowing Danny was probably confused as anything. But hey, at least _he _could see Tucker. Tuck didn't even have the privilege of seeing the First Ever Friendly Ghost. Oh, well.

"Go on, get out of here you two lovebirds," my best friend suddenly said, absentmindedly toying with his PDA.

My mouth fell open. "We're not lovebirds!"

Before he could retaliate, Danny grabbed my shoulder, rolling his eyes at the computer. "Sam, don't worry about it. Let's go, okay?"

"Okay..." I growled, just because I knew Tucker could hear me. He was going to _pay _for that 'lovebirds' comment. I saw him grin before the webcam screen went blank.

Danny, of course, wasn't paying attention. Instead, he was staring at me nervously, probably regretting the fact that he could see a human as freaky as me.

I raised an eyebrow. "What is it now?"

"Well, uh..." he stuttered, suddenly looking at the floor, the walls, the computer, anything that _wasn't _me. "I've, um, never made another person intangible before, but, uh, I think I'd have to..."

"Have to what?"

He visibly gulped. "Hold you?" Those blinding green eyes blinked at me, and I was sure that if he could, he'd be blushing his brains out—although, to my surprise, there _was _a faint color staining his cheeks.

However, internally I was trying not to die of laughter. He was _this _nervous about putting and arm around my shoulders or whatever and enabling me to fly through walls as if they weren't even there? Well, okay, I could see how he would be nervous about _that, _but he was acting like he'd never been around a girl before!

Hmm...well, come to think of it, he _did _die right before he was supposed to be an incoming freshman at Casper High. So he was the spirit of a fourteen-or-so year-old boy, which meant it shouldn't have been _that _funny that he was so nervous.

But come _on. _

"Sam? Are you alright?" Danny asked, his blush growing deeper. I guess I had probably been standing there for quite awhile with a weird look on my face. Ah, well, nothing new for me.

"Yeah," I coughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. So...how about that ghost patrol?" I grinned and swung and arm around Danny's shoulders, hoping my parents wouldn't decide to suddenly barge in my room—no doubt I'd look really weird. Although ghosts are invisible and intangible to everyone else, meaning they can't see or touch them, they weren't that way for me. Good thing, too, because I've done a lot of ghost-related punching and beating in my day.

"Y-Yeah," he stuttered, nervously placing an arm around my waist. He stood stock-still before finally relaxing in the fact that I didn't chop said arm off. "Well...here we go."

He closed his eyes, probably to concentrate on rendering both of us intangible. I actually _have _had this little ghost power done to me before, but it was usually in a very unpleasant setting, such as an angry ghost setting half my body through one wall and the rest coming out the other, and then leaving me solid again. So this was the first time I'd actually be able to enjoy this nifty little ability.

A tingling sensation flitted through my stomach. I looked down, only to realize I couldn't see my own feet—or _anything _of me, even though I felt it. I grinned. Danny had done it!

Our feet began to float off the ground, and I instinctively clutched his shoulder a little tighter. Hey, _he _was new at this too! The last thing I wanted was to be a pancake on my own floor!

We continued to fly, though, and went through the roof—literally—without a hitch. I turned to see Danny grinning happily as we became solid again. He didn't say anything, but started to glance around the streets we were flying over, his expression suddenly intense.

"How exactly do you go about this 'patrol', anyway?" I asked.

He didn't look at me, but continued to look around. "Oh, you know, just fly around town searching for any ghosts. Normally I can't see them, since they're trying haunt people's homes or something, but—" He paused, and to my utter shock, a wisp of blue smoke suddenly emitted from his mouth, curling invisibly into the air. "My ghost sense lets me know if one is near."

My mouth was hanging open. "Is that why—" I started, but was interrupted when something green and wiggly shot out from the roof of a random house. It faced the home, make a weird, echoing, growling noise, before turning to face us, an evil gleam in its red eyes.

Danny sighed. "And ectopus? Is that all?"

"Wha...?"

"An ectopus," he repeated, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. "One of the first ghosts I ever fought. They're nothing. Hang on." He shifted his grip on my waist and with his free hand, fired an ecto-plasmic energy blast at the ectopus. It whimpered lamely before disappearing in a poof of green smoke.

"See?" Danny grinned, now fully looking at me. I'm pretty sure my jaw was going to be permanently unhinged after tonight. "Easy enough. But sometimes there are ghosts that aren't defeated in a single blast. Well, one for sure, but I think there's more."

I shook my head, unfazed by his babbling. "Danny," I started, unable to contain my question any longer. He was a _ghost! _He was fighting _other _ghosts! This went against everything that I had ever learned about spectral beings throughout my whole life! "Why exactly are you fighting all of them? I've always thought that was _my _job."

He raised an eyebrow. "You can shoot plasma beams from your hands?"

"No, but I throw a mean punch." I gave him a half smile. But only half.

"I'll take your word for it." He smiled fully at me, the same dorky smile that I had seen in the pictures on the Fenton's walls, and I couldn't help but imitate it. What? Smiling had to be...contagious or something.

"So are you gonna answer my question?"

He turned away from me and shrugged. "I don't know why I fight them...it just seems like the right thing to do. And since my parents _are _ghost hunters and all, I guess...I guess I'm doing it in their honor, since _they've _never seen a ghost in their lives."

"I'd be shocked if they did." We were flying over the park now, which was obliterated with extremely bright street lamps. "Honestly, though, I think fighting them is sort of what's keeping you here."

Green eyes stared at me again. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Ugh, I'd always _hated _this part. Whenever I'd try to suggest to any spirit as to why they were still on the human plane, they'd get totally mad and deny, deny, deny. When I'd find a way to prove they were, indeed, dead, they'd _insist _that haunting whatever they were haunting was the end of it all—and then, of course, came the flying fists. Or plasma blasts.

On the other hand, something in the back of my mind was telling me it was different in Danny's case. He had said multiple times that he wouldn't mutilate me...but then again, he _was _a ghost. Better safe than sorry.

Loosening my grip on his shoulders ever-so-slightly, I continued. "Well, I don't think ghosts are really meant to fight each other. They're just here because something on earth is holding them back—preventing them from moving on to the other side."

"'Other side'?"

"Next life. Just rewards. Whatever you want to call it. The point is, ghosts aren't meant to fight each other. They just need to find out what's keeping them here and move on." I made a sweeping motion with a free hand to prove my point.

"But Sam," he sighed, those eyes sweeping around as we continued to fly. Where we were going, I had no idea. "If I don't fight them, who will?"

"I will."

"Really..." He didn't sound convinced.

"Danny," I rolled my eyes. "I've been doing this for what seems like my whole life. I think I'm used to punching the living daylights out of ghosts by now."

He paused. "Okay, so where were you when that Lunch Lady ghost attacked?" My mouth fell open, but no noise came out of it. He looked at me and smirked. "Thought so."

"Okay, fine." I couldn't help but sound a little crabby about the whole situation. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a sidekick."

"Sidekick?"

"Well, I'm still going to be doing all the talking around here. And like I said, I throw a mean punch."

"Yeah, well, don't test any of them out on me." He gave me another goofy smile and yet again, I couldn't help but mirror it. "But just to warn you...there _have _been a lot of weird ghosts around here lately..."

"Yeah, you."

"Besides me. And Sam, I really don't think they died here or anything. It doesn't seem like they've been here for all that long."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I dunno, just this weird feeling I have."

"I guess we'll know soon enough. I'm just hoping no ghosts come to attack me in the middle of the night," I grimaced. "Last time that happened was back in Dimmsdale. I fell asleep in my bed and woke up tied to a chair with a greasy-haired street punk of a ghost demanding to know what I did to his girlfriend."

He quirked an eyebrow. "_Did_ you do anything?" I glared at him. "...Stupid question."

"Darn right." I paused, noticing my house coming into view. "I guess the ghost patrol is over?"

"Yup," he said, closing his eyes for a moment. My body gave in to the feeling of being intangible, and Danny flew me back into my room in one piece. He gently set me down on the floor and we stood there for a moment, smiling at—well, I'm not sure what—until we both seemed to realize that we were still holding on to each other, and let go in a flash.

"Uh...heh. Sorry," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck, not quite meeting my eyes. "But, um—thanks for coming with me. I'm glad there was nothing worse than the ectopus."

"Me too," I agreed, making way to my computer. The screen for the webcam was still blank, which meant Tucker had probably been forced off-line. Heh, heh. What a geek. There was a sound program up, though, that had random noises of people snoring and sheets rustling. That was my cover for when I had to leave to make midnight ghost-busting calls—Tuck had created the program about a year ago, and it was a huge help for whenever I had to sneak out.

I was about to shut the computer down when the webcam screen lit up. I raised my eyebrows as Tucker appeared, his eyes shifting like he was looking for something.

"Grounded from the computer?" I asked.

"Pfft, me? Never." I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, yeah, they kicked me off-line, but I had to ask how it went. Are you sure Danny's not going to break all your bones?"

"Uhh..." Danny, who was still the room, gave the computer a series of interesting looks. First a confused one, then a glare, until finally he started laughing, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Tucker..." I sighed. "He's still in the room. I'm pretty sure he's not going to throttle me in my own domain."

"I dunno." On the screen, I saw him shove a handful of cheese puffs in his mouth. Did this kid _ever _stop eating? "Remember that Damon dude? He practically tried to rip your head off while you were asleep."

"Don't remind me." I narrowed my eyes. "Anyway, hang on a sec, okay?"

"What, the lovebirds gotta say goodnight or something?"

Not even dignifying him with an answer, I turned back to Danny and gave a somewhat apologetic smile. "Sorry, Tucker's a little...enthusiastic. Don't see why though; sometimes I'd give anything for _him _to be the freak seeing ghosts instead of me."

"Nah, don't say that," Danny smiled, not quite looking at me. He rubbed the back of his neck again. "I'm glad I met you."

My eyes bugged out of their sockets. _Huh?_

"Um...Sam?"

I blinked, regaining my composure. "What?"

"You wanna go on ghost patrol again with me tomorrow night?" He finally looked at me, a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "Since you did proclaim me your 'sidekick' and all..."

I had to laugh at that. "Sure," I agreed. "I'd love to go with you. Same time?"

"Yeah." He was grinning now, his eyes somehow oddly brighter. "Well...'night Sam."

"Goodnight Danny," I replied as he gave a little wave and went intangible before flying through the wall and into the night sky.

I faced the webcam again, only to find Tucker hiding what was probably a guffaw. I flicked the screen and scowled. "What's _your _problem?"

"I heard that." He was grinning from ear to ear. "Well, your half anyway. You're actually _willingly _hanging out with a ghost?"

"So?"

"You crazy lovebirds!"

"...Shut it, Tuck."

--

__

_Aw, I finally stuck a little bit of fluff in there. Yay! Hopefully that will hold some of you over for now...especially the totally awesome people who reviewed the last chapter: __shadow929, __dPhantoMfreak, __Shiro and Fubuki, __conan98002, __divinedragon7, __animeobsessed3191, __Blues59, __Mizz Moony Luver__, Sasia, __passing4insane, __luv2bamom, __Fantasywriter13, __WWMTgirl, __Black January, __Star-In-The-Sky-25, __dArkliTe-sPirit, __jessicajason, __Shananagin__SilverstarsEbonyskies, __phoenix wanderer, __punkettebebe, __Seigyoku Kiryou, __cutereviewgirl, __Ohka Breynekai, __KittyKiChi__, and __ShadowHawk360__(P.S. yup, this fic is inspired by the 'Mediator' series :D )_

_Yay! –gives you all cookies- More where those came from if you awesome people **review **again! Pwease? –puppydog eyes- You can't resist the eyes! Uh, okay, what if Danny gives you puppydog eyes? Mwhahaha..._

_On an unrelated note, I'm now taking oneshot requests to wake my Muse up! See my profile for more information!_


	8. Chapter Eight

_-gets pelted with rotten vegetables- Sorry about the delay here! –sweatdrops- What can I say, I get distracted easily! Kekeke...-runs and hides- Plus, the site was being a butt, but what else is new?_

_Err, lessee, I have quite an A/N after the chapter so...I think I'll leave everything else til the end. Enjoy!_

**Chapter Eight**

Over the next few weeks, I settled into a routine that honestly had me wondering what was in Amity Park's water. I would get up, go to school, eat from the vegetarian menu (or lack thereof) at lunch, and meet Jazz after school. She'd drive us back to her house and we'd either do our homework or do our best to avoid Jack and Maddie when they were testing out one of their latest advancements in ghost-hunting technology. I'd usually go home for dinner unless my parents were in a bad mood.

Once thing I noticed as the days wore on was that Jazz seemed more and more relieved every day that I didn't ask about Danny. I understood that she was probably still grieving over him, but it was a bit odd that she didn't even seem to _think _about him all that much. Had I been a normal person, I would've been worried, but of course I am _far_ from normal.

It _was _kind of awkward trying not to mention Danny when he was floating three feet from my head half the time I was over at Jazz's...plus, she didn't know that I was flying over town with her ghost-hunting dead brother practically every night.

Yes, Danny and I going on ghost patrol became a nightly event. It was actually very convenient; I was learning a lot about him and that would be extremely helpful when I finally figured out what was keeping him earth-bound, because I knew that no matter what, he was a ghost that needed to get to the other side.

What surprised me though, as time wore on, that he actually seemed interested in getting to know me. For some reason, this surprised me more than the fact that he was a ghost hunter. Briefly I wondered if it was just because he knew I was loaded and just liked me for my money, but I quickly squashed that idea. Danny was a _ghost _for crying out loud—what use would he have for wads of cash? Haunting the middle-class?

I was still pondering this on a normal Wednesday night. Tucker had been indefinitely grounded off the computer for two weeks for flunking every class except his computer course—but it didn't stop him from sneaking to instant message me with his PDA every chance he got. But if his message to me from about an hour ago was indication, he wasn't going to be on the computer _or _have his PDA for those two weeks.

I shook my head and resumed my random thinking--thinking, of course, about Danny. I couldn't help it! He honestly intrigued me, and I was determined to get to the bottom of why he was still earth-bound, since he didn't seem to have any clue. So _obviously _a girl who had been around ghosts her whole life—like me—would be able to figure it out.

...Eventually.

I sprawled out on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, just basking in the loveliness of nothing to do...no evil ghosts to catch...my homework was done (thanks to Jazz's help)...and heck, it was even quiet for once without the computer constantly dinging from Tucker's messages. My eyes slowly fell shut, really resting for what felt like the first time in ages.

--

I awoke to the familiar feeling of my skin prickling and the hairs on my neck standing up on end. I slowly blinked the sleep out of my eyes—well, as much as I could—before two hands came from behind me and covered my eyes. "Don't even try to get away!"

"Hey Danny," I greeted, attempting to fling his hands off my face, but he turned them intangible at the last second so that I ended up slapping myself.

He grinned. "Quit hitting yourself, Sam. That can't be good for you."

I groaned and swatted at the air, letting out a huge yawn. "What time is it?"

"Quarter to eight."

My eyes widened. "Darn it...I slept a really long time. I hope I'll be able to fall asleep at night at all."

Danny quirked an eyebrow. "Sam, you're a Goth. You're not _supposed _to sleep at night."

"Oh, shut up." I yawned again and flopped back onto my pillows. "What are you doing here, anyway? You usually don't show up for ghost patrol for another hour or so."

Some emotion flitted through those green orbs, but it was gone before I could decipher it. "Well...I was bored. I haven't seen you all day except when I was making faces at you behind Jazz."

I smiled. "Yeah, and did you see that I was making faces back? I honestly wonder why she doesn't think I'm a complete loon yet."

He gave a half-shrug, not quite looking at me. "Eh, she must think you're pretty normal compared to our parents. Well, compared to Dad, at least. He's the looniest of them all."

"No kidding," I agreed. After one of the ghost detectors the Fenton's had installed in their house went off went I went inside one day, Jack was now convinced that I was being haunted, so he tested out whatever new advancement in ghost-hunting technology he had created that day on me. It was extremely awkward since Danny was floating a foot from me half the time, laughing at his father trying the little patience I had.

Danny smiled, and I knew he was thinking of the same moment. How I knew, I didn't know...oh great, now I'm even confusing myself. I shook my head, clearing my mind. "So anyway...you came here an hour early because you were bored?"

"Yeah..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow as if he was expecting a sarcastic reply from me. Instead I just burst out laughing, and his expression became miffed. "Hey! Why are you laughing at me!"

I clutched my stomach, shaking my head again. "Nothing. Never mind. Hey, how about we get going on this patrol early? Maybe we'll catch a ghost by surprise or something."

A pause. It was silent for so long, I would've thought Danny had gone invisible and left the room, had I not been staring straight at him. "Danny?"

"Huh?" He shook his head, that annoying tuft of hair falling in front of his face. "Sorry...thinking too much, I guess."

"This may be a reflection of my years of experience with ghosts..." I started. "But...you're a ghost. What do you have to think about?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, the green irises glowing dangerously. "In case you haven't noticed, _Sam, _I'm different. If it wasn't for me, you probably would've suffocated under a huge pile of meat."

"Well _geez,_" I scoffed, gritting my teeth. "It was only a _question. _No need to get so grouchy about it."

"I..." He huffed a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, a gesture I quickly realized that he performed when he was feeling nervous or sheepish. "Sorry, Sam. It's just..."

"Just what?"

He sighed again. "Never mind. C'mon, let's go."

"So soon?"

"Hey, you're the one who suggested it."

"True." I frowned, not used to having my sarcasm shot back at me. "Okay then...let's go."

--

Patrol? Psssh. Danny and I had been flying around—well, _over_—town, keeping an eye out for any ghosts, but had basically been goofing off the whole time. We were now sitting on a big grassy hill that overlooked the park, just out of sight of the blinding street lamps. We had been laughing for long that after a while, I forgot what exactly we were cracking up _about. _Oh well, it was probably about Tucker.

I finally caught my breath after a bit and leaned back up on my hands, smiling up at the night sky. I could feel Danny's eyes on me, but didn't mention it.

"Sam?" he asked, after a long stretch of silence.

"Yeah?"

"How...well, I guess when exactly did you realize that you could see ghosts?"

I blinked, taken aback by the sudden question, but more so the serious tone his voice held. I glanced at him, only my eyes moving, and he was still staring at me, unconsciously picking at the grass.

"Well..." I began, pretending to think about it, but it was kind of silly—I remembered _everything _about the moment I knew I truly wasn't like everybody else.

"Sorry," Danny blurted out, rubbing the back of his neck. I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, uh...sorry if it was too personal of a question or something..."

I finally looked at him, biting my lip to hold in my laughter. "No, no, it's not a personal question or anything...it's just that no one's ever asked me that before."

He just stared.

"Well, _okay_, it wasn't like anybody _knew _they could ask me or something, since nobody but Tucker knows and all the ghosts were out to kill me first, ask questions never...although now that I think about it, not even Tucker's asked me that before."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, that's kind of weird...but then again, so is he."

I laughed out loud this time. "Yeah, he is..._man _I wish he could see you. You guys would get along sooo well."

Danny's eyes flickered with sadness, but it quickly passed. "So anyway...are you going to answer me?"

"Yeah, yeah." I smiled, tilting my head in thought. "Well, it was when I was about four years old, maybe close to five. My mother was parading me around at some child beauty pageant, forcing me to wear this _awful, _poofy, happy-peppy pink dress, _covered _with all these lame little bows."

"You, wearing pink? No way!"

"Shut up." I stuck my tongue out at him. "As I was _saying, _I was in this stupid pageant, and my mom's backstage with me, schmoozing with one of the judges. I was waiting in the wings, right before the talent portion, and I was supposed to do this weird little tap dance that was supposedly so 'adorable'."

Danny was grinning now. "Somehow I can't picture it...you wearing pink and looking adorable at the same time. Nuh-uh."

I narrowed my eyes. "I guess you don't want to hear the rest of the story, hmm?"

He pouted, and I have to admit (though I knew I would take it to the grave), it made him look more adorable than I have _ever _looked when I was five and in a poofy pink dress. "Sorry!"

"That's more like it." I raised my eyebrow again. "So anyway, a before I was set to go out, my grandmother appears next to me and laughs, saying how my mother was subjecting me to cruel and unusual punishment."

"So? Why didn't she just tell your mother that herself?"

"She probably would've except...my grandmother had died the year before."

"Oh." Then comprehension dawned on that pale, ghostly face of his. "_Ohhhhhhhh!_"

Dense as a doorknob, Danny was. "So I'm standing there, talking to the spirit of my grandmother, and she's telling me to go break the other girls' legs and stuff, when my mother appears, pushing me out on stage since I hadn't walked out there when I called, and she walks right _through _Grandma. I noticed nobody else seemed to see there was an old woman randomly backstage, and I realized nobody else could see her. Grandma winked at me and disappeared, and there I was, suddenly on stage expected to tap dance for all the country-club parents."

"Did you?"

"I was so in shock from seeing Grandma, I just looked at where she had been standing, floating, whatever she'd been doing, and then back at the audience before I screamed, 'I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!' at the top of my lungs and leaped off the stage and ran outta there."

"No way!" Danny's mouth was hanging open, but when I nodded, he immediately burst into laughter and laughed himself intangible, falling through the ground before his hand stuck up and I yanked him back to earth. "That is _priceless!_"

"And the best part is that it happened waaay before the movie came out, so really...that just makes it all funnier."

After he had calmed down some (but was still grinning like an idiot), he asked, "And your mom didn't suspect anything?"

"Nah. To this day she thinks I did it just because I didn't want to perform and honestly, that's fine with me." I hugged my knees to my chest. "I knew there was something weird about me when I started seeing more and more ghosts, and Grandma came back and explained what I was supposed to be doing—help them to the 'other side'." I made air quotes with my fingers. "So...now that's what I do."

"Why'd you tell Tucker, if you couldn't even tell your own parents?"

I smiled. "Because when I think about it...Tucker's all I've got." I sighed. "He's helped me out like you wouldn't believe, and we've been friends for so long, I think it would've been harder for him to believe I was lying."

"At least now you don't just have him."

I glanced over at Danny. "What?"

"Now you've also got me."

I blinked, my mouth hanging open a bit, until he stood up, offering a gloved hand to me. I gave him a small smile and took it as he made us intangible and started off towards my house.

"Yeah..." I finally whispered, halfway towards our destination. He knew what I was talking about. "I do."

--

_Awww...-falls over-_

_Okay, here's the kinda-long A/N: One thing I've been distracted with is my new writing journal! ;D It's on Livejournal, and there's a link in my profile. I'd be interested to know if anyone's on it and if they'd like to friend me (mwhahaha), because I've been thinking about putting this fic up there. If I do, it would probably be updated faster than this site, just to get all the HTML junk out of the way. xP So let me know! _

As always, much love and thanks to the awesome people who reviewed last chapter: SilverstarsEbonyskies, dPhantoMfreak, _passing4insane, Sweeteen19, conan98002, Free-Desert-Wind, divinedragon7, shadowedstar213, Sasia, dArkliTe-sPirit, emotigone crazy, look for the girl with the ..., cutereviewgirl, Black January, and Amathys._

_Aaand_ _I've decided to finally do some reviewer replies to some stuff you guys have been asking/saying...yay!_

**_dPhantoMfreak _**– _I'm glad you love this story:D I don't know about 'original' since I'm borrowing the basic idea from 'The Mediator', but thanks anyway. ;D And I think that no matter what kind of AU or whatever, Tucker would play matchmaker! He's cool like that, muhahaha._

**_passing4insane_** – _Yes, Danny is a full ghost in this fic. It was still the ghost portal's fault though XD _

**Free-Desert-Wind** – Thanks so much for the awesome review! It totally made my week :D I'm glad you're enjoying this so much, even though I am, indeed a messy typist XD

**shadowedstar213** – Pssh, I'll be leading that angry mob! Mwhahaha.

**cutereviewgirl** – Well, like I've said, this is AU, so nobody really knows whether ghosts are evil or not—or if they're real. And after Danny, not even Sam's all the sure anymore. It's not like the show where everybody can actually see the ghosts; so hardly anybody even believes in them. As for Danny 'moving on', well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;)

Okeydokey, I think that's it for now...as always, be awesome and **review**! Review like the wind! Well okay, maybe not like the wind, but you get cake? Mmm, cake.


	9. Chapter Nine

_-falls over- I WAS DISTRACTED! By, uh...a lot of stuff. D: Blarg. Um, yes, finally a new chapter of this...hopefully y'all enjoy it, since I have no clue when the next one is going to be. I'm heading into madness in the next few months. Ugh. x.x RAWR. Um, yes. Chapter. xD Do I smell...PLOT?_

_And besides the fact...someone needs to poke my Danny Phantom muse and wake it up hardcore. It likes to sleep a lot lately. -.-_

**Chapter Nine**

"C'mon class, how many times must I tell you that learning is hip?"

_Groan_.

"_Sense and Sensibility!_ I shouldn't have to do this problem myself! Nine is equal to the power of the denominator and take some cheese puffs and salami and mix it into a giant tub of cream cheese and blahblahblahblahblah..."

Okay, so that wasn't _really _what Mr. Lancer was saying, but hey, it was difficult to concentrate first thing in the morning, _especially _on math. I had to be careful not to fall asleep though; Lancer was not only my math teacher, but also taught my English and astronomy classes. It didn't help that he always had his eye on me on account of nearly laughing myself into a coma the first time I saw who my first period teacher was—he just _had _to be the guy Jack, Maddie, and Jazz were chasing the day I moved here. I was almost tempted to ask him why he was wearing a mask in the first place, but thought better of it when I saw the Stern Teacher Glare of Doom.

Though I had to admit, in the short time I'd been in this school, I could already tell that Mr. Lancer was one of the better teachers. I'd seen him coaching kids in whatever subjects after school, giving them a chance of learning the material better, and letting other students take on some extra credit if he felt that was what they needed. You don't see many teachers _anywhere _doing that kind of thing nowadays.

Still, good teacher or not, it didn't stop his lectures from being totally perfect for naptime...

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey."

My head snapped up from the desk and I let out a strange yell that sounded kind of like 'wark!' Lancer, who had been talking, stopped and raised a humorless eyebrow at me.

"Miss Manson, is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

Danny suddenly appeared, floating above Mr. Lancer's desk with the biggest smirk _ever _on his face. I refrained from glaring and just shook my head. "No...there isn't."

"Then I suggest you not nap in my class and pay attention." With another firm look at me, he turned back to the board and went on babbling about whatever he was teaching. Math? Yeah. Something like that, although since when has math had so many letters?

Danny floated towards me, sitting cross-legged in the air next to me and peered over my shoulder. He raised an eyebrow and made a '_tsk tsk' _noise, shaking his head. "C'mon Sam, you can't rely on Jazz to do your homework forever, as smart as she is. She always told me that she was going to leave and be a brain surgeon."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, picking up my pen and writing a reply since talking to thin air would probably look just a tad suspicious. '_It's first period! And I've always been fighting to stay awake in this class—why are you just mentioning it NOW? Plus, I always thought Jazz said she was going to be a psychologist.'_

He read the note, shrugging. "I dunno. You seemed like you needed a wake up call." I noticed that he tactfully ignored my comment about Jazz.

'_Bite me.'_

"Aw, c'mon Sam, we're the good guys! No need to be so grouchy!"

'_I'm a Goth. I'm supposed to be scowling all the time, remember?'_

"Touchy, touchy."

I heaved another sigh. '_Is there anything in particular you're here for, or are you just making sure I don't fall asleep and drool all over my notes?'_

He laughed at that. "Actually, I think I may have found out something...just...get Jazz to take you down to the basement after school, okay?"

I raised my eyebrows and blinked, my face a big question mark. Either he didn't see or just ignored it, because he suddenly went intangible and flew through the roof of the classroom to who-knows-where.

I groaned, whacking my forehead on my notebook. And here Grandma had told me all those years ago that my life would be 'interesting' with all of these ghostly encounters. Ha! It was just turning out to be one big chore. Now I was having ghosts order me around, of all things!

Could life get _any _weirder?

--

"So, how was your day?" Jazz asked as we got into her car once school let out. It was the exact same way we started our conversations every single afternoon—though I had to admit, it was certainly a way to get the ball rolling. Jazz had a way of finding ways to ramble on from just about anything I said. It got annoying at times, but I knew she meant well.

"It was alright," I shrugged in reply, buckling my seat belt. "Lancer actually eased up on the homework today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and it's really weird considering I almost fell asleep in his class this morning." I smiled, almost smirking. "Luckily Da—"

Jazz gave me an odd look as she started the drive back to FentonWorks. "Luckily what?"

'_Stupid!' _I thought. '_Stupid, stupid, stupid!'_ I had just about been to say that _Danny _had woken me up, but I couldn't very well say that, now could I? Uggh, it was getting more and more difficult not to have Tucker around twenty-four seven so I could babble on about ghosts. I didn't think Jazz would appreciate that, since her parents probably do that more than I ever will in my whole lifetime.

"Luckily...uh, I wasn't the only one who fell asleep. Lancer noticed the other kid first," I lied smoothly. "I woke up in time."

"Well, that's good," Jazz answered, a note of disbelief in her voice. Darn her for being a future psychologist! However, she seemed to accept my answer, so I just went along with that.

"Yeah." Hmm, now I had a real challenge—how on earth was I going to get Jazz to take me down to the basement? Well, according to Jack and Maddie, it was their 'lab', but what kind of loons converted their basement into a lab?

...Wait, never mind.

My so-called 'challenge' turned out not be one when Jazz pulled into the driveway, killing the engine. She told me to go on ahead inside since she had a lot of books and papers and whatnot to gather up. I obliged, turning to the front door and opened it, letting myself in.

An alarm immediately rang out and some kind of weapon appeared out of nowhere, coating me in sticky green goop. I frowned, holding my arms out as what I assumed to be plasma dripped off of me.

"Code red!" Jack called from somewhere, running towards me with a fishing pole—excuse me, the Fenton Fisher—poised ready to attack, if you really can attack with a fishing pole. His face grew confused, then disappointed as he realized I wasn't a ghost.

"False alarm, Maddie! It's just Jazz's spooky-ooky bat friend!"

"'Spooky-ooky'?" I muttered to myself, wondering if I should even _move _while I was coated in this stuff. However, Maddie immediately came into the room, smiling at me gently.

"Sorry about that, dear," she apologized for Jack. "Can't be too careful. Though it _is _a bit odd the alarms keep going off around you..."

"Yeah..." I laughed nervously. "Weird."

"Anyway, follow me down to the lab and we'll get you cleaned up. I'd rather not what you're, uh, coated in go to waste."

"...Sure," I replied, still wondering as to how the Fentons even _got _plasma in the first place, but I put that thought aside as Maddie led me downstairs to the lab. Mission accomplished.

To my utter surprise, it was actually very nice and well-equipped for a 'homemade' lab, so to speak. There were books, papers, computers, test tubes, and science-y stuff covering just about every surface. Taking up one wall was some kind of giant circular object closed off with big steal doors. Some weird-looking device was embedded into the wall next to it.

A funny feeling began to churn its way through my stomach. That _thing _seemed a bit...familiar, somehow...

"Maddie!" Jack's voice suddenly boomed through the house just as Maddie was walking towards me with a towel and a bunch of empty beakers. One slipped through her hands and shattered on the floor, scattering miniscule pieces of glass everywhere.

"Darn that man," she muttered. She turned to look at me as she headed up the stairs. "I'm going to go see what's up, so just hang out down here for a minute, okay?"

"Sure." As soon as she was gone, I crossed my arms as best I could without smearing plasma everywhere. "Y'know, you _could _have just phased through the roof or something. You didn't have to go through the front door."

Danny materialized near the entrance to the lab, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, but I heard Mom brought you down here, so I decided to set off the alarm when Jazz walked in the door. She's probably busy analyzing them or something, so we have a little while—I want to show you something."

"Show me what?"

Instead of answering me right away, he floated towards the big steel doors in the wall I had noticed earlier, suddenly looking grim. In fact, he was looking so remorse that I had an inkling as to what was behind those doors, but decided to find out for sure.

"What's that?" I asked.

He sighed and crossed his arms. "The—the ghost portal Mom and Dad built."

Bingo. "You mean...?"

"Yeah. This is where I...died." He whispered the word, as though it was forbidden that a ghost should say it. Then again, he _was _still pretty new at the whole nobody-can-see-me thing. "But anyway, before I...you know...it was just a big empty space of nothing. I managed to phase inside of it a few days ago and actually found out that Mom and Dad were onto something."

"What?"

Danny grabbed my upper arm, not caring about the green goop I was coated in, and led me over towards the device against the wall I had noticed earlier. A closer look revealed that there was some kind of keypad, as well as various knobs and doodads.

"The code's eight-three-one-four, and then you push that button there," he gestured.

"Eh?" Man, I had _such _a way with words today.

"To open the portal."

I jumped, looking at those big steel door and back at Danny, back and forth, back and forth. "_Open _it? Are you insane?" Dumb question. _I _was the insane for having a ghost as a sidekick.

"Just trust me, okay?"

I glanced at him over my shoulder and nearly fell over at the determination and sincerity in those blazing green orbs. Trusting a ghost had _never _been on my agenda, but for some reason...trusting him just seemed to be totally natural. I couldn't explain it; only that my stomach gave a slight lurch as I answered. "Y-Yeah. Okay."

He smiled, and I _swear _whatever was jumping in my gut was out and about the moment he did. I barely had time to think about it, however, as I entered the code and pushed the button Danny had pointed at.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. I was prepared to give him a hard glare when the floor suddenly rumbled beneath my feet, shuddering even more as the doors opened to reveal—well, I'm not really sure what.

It appeared to be a huge, swirling green mass of...something. Whatever was in there was obscured by green fog, although if I listened close enough, I could hear faint strains of voices.

"What is this?" I asked in awe, stepping right in front of the device. I was tempted to walk right in, but something stopped me.

"This is the Fenton Portal," he answered. Well _duh. _I knew that. I was more mesmerized at the green world in front of us.

He gave a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "My parents were actually onto something here—I think when I, uh...went in here, it activated _this._" He gestured out into the emerald beyond.

"And what exactly would _this _be?"

"Sam, those weird ghosts we've been seeing—I think they're coming from here. This place is the Ghost Zone, and from what I've discovered in the little bit of exploring I've done, there are some really dangerous ghosts out there—and they're going to be heading this way."

--

_-gasp- Is that PLOT I smell? Finally. xD_

_I'm extremely sleepy at the moment, so no reviewer replies this time around--but I will say this: You guys are **AWESOME! **Srsly. xD I'm awed at the positive response I've been getting for this fic. You all rock. Rockage my sockage, YES, yes you do._

Brownies if you **review! **And my brownies are awesome, like you. Hey, I'm a poet...


End file.
